Bleached Grand Line
by Undying Soul98
Summary: With the Vandenreich defeated, Soul Society faces a new problem... the world is larger than they thought. With the knowledge that they are only a small country in the "East Blue", the Shinigami must now deal with the World Government while Kurosaki Ichigo is called in to lead a small crew of humans and Shingami to victory. All Soul Society can do is prepare for the inevitable war.
1. Chapter 1: Worrying Circumstances

**Chapter One**

**AN- Hello all! I have had this idea in my head for a while now. I'm bored of my current One Piece story, I decided that I may as well do a first chapter of this and see what people think.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing! Kubo and Oda are god! …... damn it! Nerds of the world! We must do an Aizen and overthrow god, then I... I mean _we_ shall rule over two of the best anime and manga series ever! AH HA HA HA! (Just joking... when we kill Oda and Kubo the rights are mine!)**

Shunsui Kyoraku was not normally a man to worry about things. Sure, lots of shit things had happened recently but nothing really _worried_ him. Sure, the loss of half of the Captains and Lieutenants 100 years previously had been tough, the Quincy massacre had been a particularly unpleasant time, the Kugo Gingo incident left a sore taste in Kyoraku's mouth, even the whole Aizen fiasco never really worried Kyoraku. The Vandenreich incident... that pissed him off, not worried him. The incident he had gathered the Captains together for... _this_ was worrying.

"Head Captain, could you inform me what was so damn important for you to call us here? I have matters to attend to." said Soi Fon, the flat chested captain of Squad Two and the leader of the Onmitsukido.

"Yeah... this bores me... at least Ikkaku can give me an okay spar back at the barracks." stated Kenpachi Zeraki, the strongest warrior in the whole of Soul Society. After the war with the Quincy's, Kenpachi had increased his strength dramatically. Comparing Kenpachi's previous maximum power to his new amount was like comparing a mole hill to a mountain, or a cup of water to a lake. With a single swing of his released sword, he managed to destroy 34 districts in the Rukon District and killed thousands of innocents and guilty alike. The memory of that battle still gave the lazy Captain goosebumps. Luckily, Kenpachi had taken to limiting his power even more than before. Things just seemed to bore the war loving captain now, he barely bothered showing up to meeting now.

"As much as I hate to agree with Kenpachi, we do have things to do. After that damn incident, we still have two Captain positions unfilled." Stated Toshiro Hitsugya. The young ice user was still relatively new to Captaincy. Despite this he had experience in two major wars. Kyoraku looked forwards to seeing how strong he would one day become. He had no doubt that the Captain of Squad Ten would be the next Head Captain.

"Very well then... I will tell you the news quickly." Said Kyoraku. The experienced Captain looked over at all his allies and companions. Soi Fon in Squad Two, Rose Otoribashi in Squad Three, Shinji Hirako representing Squad Five, the recently shaken Byakuya Kuchiki with the Sixth Squad, recently promoted Abari Renji representing Seventh, Kensei Muguruma was Ninth, Hitsugya was the Tenth, Kenpachi was obviously Squad Eleven, Urahara had taken the role of Twelfth again and Kyoraku's eternal friend Ukitaki stood for the Thirteenth Squad. Squad Four and Eight were still empty.

"There has been a major event concerning the safety of Soul Soul Society. Due to its potential for future conflict, I decided to hold off informing all of you."  
"Get on with it Kyoraku! I told you, I'm bored."  
"I know you are Kenpachi! You always are! For once this is serious!"  
"If it was so large, why was I not informed?" Questioned Soi Fon, her face set in a scowl.

"If I told you, you would kill first, ask questions later. Only Urahara, Ukiatake and I have known."  
"Shunsui... perhaps you should tell them now?"

"Ukitake, you're right."

"Just tell us, damn it!" was Renji's eloquent response.

"Fine! Fine! Tell them the details Urahara."  
"What, me? But I am just a simp-"

"NO YOUR NOT!" Roared all the other Captains.

"This is the 15th time he's said that joke this month." whispered Shinji to Rose, who nodded wearily in agreement.

"Fine." Urahara pulled down his hat (Which he still wore for some bizarre reason) to show he was now being serious. "Three days ago, the Twelfth Squad's Reiatsu sensors went off the chart. It showed that 20 Ryoka entered the Soul Society that day."  
"Twenty!? Why were we not informed?" Demanded Renji.

"As our Head Captain said, secrecy. I myself personally captured them. These Ryoka claimed not to be from the world of the living. All attempts to make them talk about the modern human world failed. They went through no portal to arrive here... no... they sailed here."  
"BULLCRAP! You can't sail from the world of the living to the Soul Society!" stated Kensei.

"Well of course... that would be just silly. More evidence backing up there claims were that some of them had odd powers."  
"Big whoop." Said Hitsugya. "More Fullbringers."  
"No, there powers are that of "Devil Fruits". I have seen them in action, they are all physical and elemental based powers, not spiritual."  
"Not spiritual? How the hell can they even see us then?" asked Shinji. This made no sense to the Visored, even with his moderate intelligence.

"It took me a wile as well. These humans are all spiritually aware, while some are gaining artificial Fullbrings or other powers. According to these sailors, Soul Society is just a small part of the world."  
"We know that!" snapped Kensei, tired of this patronising explanation. "there's also Hueco Mundo!"  
"That is not what I meant. What I mean is that the Soul Society is only a small segment of this world. The Ryoka say we are in a supposedly blank part of "East Blue". They were sailing to a completely different location and only ended up here on chance because they took a different route."  
"You expect me to believe that?! I don't see what Lady Yoruchi saw in you!" snapped Soi Fon.

"Now now! Stop picking on the defenceless shopkeeper!" joked Urahara. "I am being absolutely serious. Apart from the Rukon District and mapping the coasts, we have never really bothered seeing if there was anything out there. Now something out there has found _us_!"  
"Hmm! Why should I care if some group of humans live on a far off island! There all as strong as ants to me!"

"Don't be so sure of that Kenpachi." Warned Kyoraku. "According to the sailors there are some very strong individuals out there. These Admirals seem especially troubling."  
"Hmmm! Still don't care. I'm leaving." With that Kenpachi walked casually out of the room.

"No respect!" said the cat loving assassin with a scowl.

"Nothing we can do abut him, lets just be happy he's on our side."  
A roll call of "Hear hears!" filled the room.

"The Admirals are part of a sea based pinnacle of power in the vast world... we are somehow the small fish in the pond."  
"IMPOSSIBLE! We are the Gotei 13! No one makes us a small fish!"  
"Alas Soi Fon, we are. The big daddy World Government seems particularly aggressive. I doubt they will leave us alone. Apparently there were originally two ships sailing when they reached here. The second has already left."  
"Then that means we will soon be discovered." deduced Shinji.

"Correct!" said Urahara "You win the prize! Soon we will have the whole world after our ass! In our weakened state, we have no chance of holding out against all the enemies out there, what with more than half of our numbers decimated. The World Government _will_ want us to join them... I know that we will not. There are too many factors at this point to make an accurate measurement of the enemies power."  
"Then what the hell do we do!?" roared Renji.

"SILENCE! The old man may be dead but there is no need to loose our heads! We will carry on as normal, we shall prepare but will make no aggressions. Instead we will send some scouts, someone not associated with the Gotei 13 and Soul Society, to discover about this new world. They can make a name for themselves and show that our kind is not to be messed with."  
"But who would be stupid enough to accept a mission going into the virtually unknown?" questioned Rose.

"Oh... I know just the people." and with that Urahara gave one of his signature grins.

XXXXXXXXXX

When Ichigo Kurosaki woke up to his dad kicking him in the face, he knew it would be a bad day.

Ichigo went down for breakfast with his dysfunctional family as normal, put up with Kurosaki Isshin's regular requests for grand children with Orihime and dealt with another day of work as usual.

Ichigo, now 18, could happily say that he was done with the constant shit in his life. Unfortunately the constant shit was not done with him. The third Shinigami, third human, third Quincy, still worked at the Unagiya Shop. He had tried getting a better paid job but potential employers were often put off by his orange hair. The pay was crap but it would do for now.

After his work for the day was done, he went to meet Chad and Uryu at a local coffee shop that Uryu was partial to.

"Hey, Chad!"called Ichigo to his muscular friend.

"Oh, hey Ichigo!" Chad gave a wave from his seat at the outdoor table. The giant was dressed in a black and white business suit and carried a large, brown leather briefcase with notes for his job. When Chad officially announced he was apprenticing for an accountancy job, the entire Karakura group were surprised. They were even _more_ surprised when he was so good at it that he soared through the ranks at the bank.

"Hows work?" asked Ichigo, a rare smile on his face.

"Fine."

"As talkative as ever." said Ichigo before he went to get a coffee. He met Uryu inside as he waited in the queue.

"Afternoon, Kurosaki."  
"Afternoon Ishida. Hows the business going?"  
"Not well, not well. Lace is out of fashion this season."  
"Why should that matter?"  
"All my exported underclothes had lace on them."  
"Ouch. Why do you even make women's underclothes?"

"Good money. Girls always need a bra."  
"I guess."

Uryu Ishida graduated from Karakura High with high grades in all subjects. He could have been anything. He had the brain to be a lawyer, the disposition of a politician, the precision of a brain surgeon. With the death of Ryuken Ishida, many expected the young Quincy to enter the family trade. People were initially surprised at his choice to be a fashion designer. Then again, people always had said that he seemed a little queer.

"Hey Chad."  
"Hey, Ishida." said Chad as the Quincy and the Shinigami sat down at the table. They drunk their drinks for a while, in silence due to Ichigo's general grumpiness, Chad's silence and Uryu's quiet disposition. This was how it always was when the three best friends met up every Friday for afternoon coffee. They would always start off in silence, then conversation would gradually begin as the warm liquids were drunk. It was an odd sort of friendship, the kind destined to fail. After all, they were a Quincy, a Shinigami and a Fullbringer. It was like the beginning of a bad joke.

"A Quincy, a Shinigami and a Fullbringer walk into a coffee shop..."

With their drinks finished, it was time to go there separate ways. Thins went as normal until Ichigo heard the cheerful call of "ICHIGO!" Orihime rushed into the coffee shop, tripped, fell and cried out in surprise. She got up as if nothing happened and said "Hey Ichigo!" Orihime had gotten out of the habit of referring to Ichigo as "Kurosaki" thanks to a little motivation from Tatsuki.

"Didn't that, you know, hurt?"  
"Nope! I have a solid head!"

"Ummmm... sure! Want to sit down?"  
"No no no no no! We have to leave, now!"  
"Pardon? If your having another daydream about robots destroying Karakura, then you are on your own."  
"No! Its Urahara!" now Ichigo was suspicious. Whenever the ex-shopkeeper was involved, Ichigo usually ended up getting punched in the face... or a sword to the face... or a Cero to the face... come to think of it, why did Ichigo even bother talking to Urahara.?

"What did he do this time? Did he open up a wormhole to another dimension and decided he needs me to check it out?"  
"No!"

"Has Aizen decided to have a comeback... again?"

"No!"  
"Is Mashiro having another sugar rush?"  
"No!"  
"Please tell me that damn shopkeeper has been diagnosed as clinically insane?"  
"No! Apparently Soul Society is in BIG trouble! The Head Captain needs to speak with you!"  
"Come on! They know I'm retired!"  
"He says its an emergency! He also said that if you didn't come he would post those pictures of you drunk with Yoruchi on top of you!"  
"... DAMN THAT BASTARD! IT IS OFFICIAL! WE ARE GOING TO SOUL SOCIETY TO KILL KISUKE URAHARA!"

"Okey dokey! Chad, Uryu, they want you there too!"  
"Sure." Was Chad's gruff response.

"I am afraid I must pass. I may have sided with Soul Society against Aizen and the Vandenreich, but I still can not help Soul Society."  
"According to Tessai it was only _slightly _related to Soul Society! If anything its a problem for everyone really!"

"...fine. The modelling company has no need for mew designs at the moment. I can last without them."

"Okey dokey then! To Mr Urahara's old shop!"

XXXXXXXXXX

"No."  
"Come on Ichigo!"  
"No."  
"Do it for the world! The Soul Society! Your friends! Puppies!"

"No."

"... I still have those pictures."  
"CURSE YOU!" Ichigo scowled and flared his Reiatsu. "I am _soooooo_ killing you when we get back."  
"That's the spirit, Ichigo!" said Kyoraku as he patted him on the back encouragingly.

"You're dead too you know."  
"Oh! You sure are a good laugh! Know any dirty jokes!" a book on decency and common respect to women was chucked at the Head Captain from off stage, by a very pissed off lieutenant.

"No, seriously. When I get back I will: release Aizen and team up with him, build up an army of Arrancar and Hollows, use my awesomeness to summon protagonists from various anime series, defeat all the Captains , kill you and Urahara, beat up Aizen and the Arrancar and then go home for tea."

"..."

"HA! We really need to invite you to some parties Ichigo!"

Thinking of "The Pictures" Ichigo said "No thanks." he then walked back to his bemused friends muttering something like "Ha! That's what he thinks! …... He won't be laughing when I stab him in the back... eating Snicker Bars... Mr T!... doom... crossover... powers of rock and role!"

Uryu sweat dropped. "I worry for you sometimes, Kurosaki."

"So do I, Ishida. So do I. I have a theory you see. The more powerful a Shinigami becomes, the more eccentric and mad they become."  
"Really?"  
"Look at my dad and the Zero Squad."  
"I see your point."  
"Ahum!" coughed Urahara. "Perilous quest to enter this new world and do the shit which needs to be done."  
"The shit which needs to be done?"  
"Yes. The shit which needs to be done."

"Urahara. I need to know, how long will we be gone?" Asked Uryu. "We all have jobs after all, Ichigo had family as well."

"No problem, my dear Quincy! You will probably gone for years!"  
"YEARS?!"  
"Yes, years. You will be paid of course. Fuck loads of money."  
"How much?" Asked Chad gruffly. Urahara took out a small piece of paper with an amount of money printed on it in dark black ink.

Chad blinked once or twice before saying "That is a shit load of zero's."  
"Exactly! The amount will only continue to go up for as long as the job continues."  
"I still don't know." grumbled Ichigo, thinking of the family he would leave behind.

"Come on Ichigo! This is surely better than the job you currently have! Not only that but I know you are bored stiff with the weak Hollow attacks! Surely you would like one more chance to have an adventure before settling down for a normal life."

Ichigo grumbled in response to this argument. "Fine, if Chad and Ishida agree, I'll do it."  
"Hey!" said Orihime, a frown on her face. "You forgot about me!"  
Ichigo's face lightened. "Sorry Orihime." he turned to Urahara again. "She'll need to agree as well."  
"Well of course she's coming! You'll be living on a ship! What sort of a crew does not have a medic?"

"So I'm like the doctor?"  
"Well its up to Ichigo, he is the captain."  
"Wait, what?"  
"Yes, you will be leading this mission."  
"Who's coming with me?"

"There is you, obviously, Chad, Inoue, Uryu and Rukia will be joining as well."  
"Oh joy! The midget's coming."  
"Of course. No Captains will be joining you, we need all the man power we can get. We can spare a lieutenant though. You will leave as soon as you are equipped with new clothes."  
Uryu raised his glasses. "What is wrong with our clothes?"  
"The seas you will be travelling in seem a bizarre, often having a mixture of cultures and clothes choice. You probably don't stand out, it just may be better if you try to blend in."  
"I see the logic."  
"Of course you do! We will be meeting at South Rukon 80, the seaside village. Your _new_ ship is docked there. When you are changed you will meet there."  
The Karakura crew nodded in agreement before leaving for individual changing rooms which could be found in the First Squads barracks.

Ichigo changed out of his Shinigami robes and put on the clothes Urahara selected. He now wore a plain white sleeveless shirt which showed off the black cross tattoos on his wrists, plain grey trousers and a long black coat. It was long enough to go down to his thighs and was a midnight black colour, it had dark red stitching around the wrists and had a small silver half moon on each shoulder.

"_You can fault Urahara but damn, he has good taste in clothes."_ thought Ichigo as he stared at his new attire. Leaving the room he saw Chad was dressed up too. The Mexican wore a dark grey T-shirt which showed of the tattoo of a heart with a snake and wings around it, as well as black trousers and his signature coin on a chain.

"Hey, Uryu went on ahead with Orihime."  
"Damn Ishida! Always going off on his own! Lets go catch up to them!"  
"Right."

After passing through the south gate, the duo quickly rushed through the Rukon Districts. Ichigo used Shunpo while Chad had Sonido.

After about an hour of non stop travelling, Chad and Ichigo reached South Rukon 80. it was a small district, only about the size of a small village. Shacks were the house of choice and many children in rags stared hungrily at them from there positions on the floor. No one wore sandals.

"Damn it! I hate seeing kids like this, you know Chad!"

"I think so to. Kids should be happy." said Chad as he thought of his own less than happy childhood.

They kept moving until they reached the small port. It was a small strip of wooden pier, long forgotten and never used. Two ships were docked. A plain Italian style merchant ship and the other had a white robe covering it.

"_Urahara's idea of suspense." _thought Ichigo.

"Ahh! Ichigo!" yelled Orihime as she waved her arms above herself to catch his attention.

"Hey Orihime! You're looking good."  
Orihime blushed at the unintended compliment. "Umm, thanks Ichigo."

Orihime was currently dressed in a manner similar to her uniform when she was held in Hueco Mundo. She had a tight white top on, a white jacket, which failed to conceal her enormous bust and also wore a long white and grey skirt.

"It is nice to see you arrived so soon, Kurosaki."  
"Yeah, thanks for going ahead Ishida."  
"Orihime has no high speed techniques. It was simpler if I took her ahead of time."  
Uryu was finally out of his ridiculous cape. He now wore a grey dress shirt, a white blazer with blue stitching, the Quincy logo sewed in in dark blue thread, as well as simple white trousers. He was the image of a gentleman.

"Hey Ichigo! Didn't forget me, did you?"  
"Oh, its you midget."  
HEY! I am not a midget!"  
"Ahh!" Said Urahara, nudging Chad humorously. "Young love."  
"SHUT UP!" The two of them yelled.

Rukia was wearing a short black dress, which clung tightly to her slim form and increased her chest size. She had dark purple stockings on.

"I see we are all here." said Urahara, clapping his hands together. "Time to begin."  
"Yeah yeah!" Complained Ichigo. "Get on with it!"  
"Fine, fine! Now behold! Your _new_ ship!" and with that Urahara pulled off the sheet dramatically to reveal the ship. It was a large Sloop type sailing ship. It was long and thin and was streamlined perfectly. It was made of light brown wood, although certain sections were painted a black colour, giving the whole ship a Gothic feel which was backed up by the dark blue swordfish figurehead, although the saw was replaced with a slim sword. With dark black sails it was truly a threatening ship.

"Her name is the "Midnight Cutter"! Treat her well, she is the finest in the Seireitei's navy.

"Navy of one." Muttered Rukia.  
"What was that miss Kuchiki?"  
"Nothing!" was Rukia's frenzied answer. This was due to a certain picture Urahara came to possess of her... come to think of it, Urahara had embarrassing photos of _everyone._ Most Shinigami agree that the Captain of Squad 12 probably caused those embarrassing incidents to happen, simply so that he had some blackmail material on everyone.

"As I said, she is the finest, and the only, ship to have ever been created by the Seireitei."  
"Did you make it yourself?" Questioned Uryu as he studied the ship intently.

"Of course! The bottom of the ship is made out of Sekkiseki stone, the wood reinforced with Kido to make it near unbreakable! An engine has also been attached, it is powered with spiritual energy... my own design. All in all, a brilliant ship. You will need to read the instruction manual... there are a few surprises." Urahara took out a sleek manual and handed it to Rukia, who immediately began devouring the knowledge inside.

"So then Ichigo, are you ready for one last adventure?"

**AN- so this was my first chapter. This is my first crossover so all advice and criticism would be appreciated. I have nothing more to say except rate and review, the sooner that happens, the sooner chapter two comes out. Anyway, Undying Soul out.**


	2. Chapter 2: The Midnight Cutter

**Chapter two**

**AN- Hello all! I had a pretty good response to the first chapter so I decided to grind out another one.**

**Disclaimer: No I do not own One Piece or Bleach. What I _do _own, is a sense of coolness when in jeans, which I am sure two Japanese guys can not possibly compete with. **

"Damn Urahara, you really went all out." Said Ichigo with a grin as he looked round at the ship he would be spending the near foreseeable future in.

"Of course I did! Soul Society really owes you one... or two... maybe three or four really. Since we're making you do our dirty work-"

"Yet again."  
"Yes, since you are doing our dirty work, you may as well do it in class."

Class was one thing the ship was not lacking in. So far Ichigo had only seen the lower deck and he was already impressed. The main area for the ship was two large wooden sections, a large open area which spanned three quarters of the front deck and a smaller area where the steering wheel was, which was located towards the back of the ship, above the third floor. The lower area was relatively plain, except for three cannons on each side (A plain black cannon with no ammunition. According to Urahara none was needed, all you had to do was insert some spiritual energy)

Around the middle mast, there were some wooden seats which could be used for an out door meeting point. A section of the floor was roped off to be used as a sparring arena. Ichigo was looking forwards to having a friendly match or two with Chad, they had both complained that their skills were getting rusty.

There was also a room at the top of the mast to serve as a crows nest. Uryu, when he decided to check it out, said that it was a perfect location to keep Quincy weaponry. The room was a simple circular storage area but with windows at the four compass points. There was a small bed here so that someone could be permanently stationed here. It was also a perfect sniper point for an archer. Uryu vaguely complained that he had no time to collect any of his equipment, the designer only had the Quincy Cross he always carried. Urahara cryptically said he would find a way to give them to him later.

There was also a few painted targets against the wall of the second floor for Uryu and Rukia to use as targets during practise. (Floor one was located below deck, with another floor beneath. Floor three was placed vertically above floor two, giving it the appearance of a large block at the back of the ship, with deck area above.

"Follow me everyone and we shall continue with the tour!" Urahara motioned for the group to enter a plain door, the only one on the entire deck. Orihime was practically achieving lift off in excitement and quickly dashed in, followed by Chad and Rukia. Uryu took one last look around before heading in.

"Come on now Ichigo!" called the ex-shopkeeper from inside. Ichigo rolled his eyes and followed them inside. They were in a simple corridor, illuminated by light bulb's. There were no windows in this section of the ship. There were two doors evenly spread across on either side of the corridor.

Urahara pointed to the left one closest to the door. "That door leads below deck, there are some steps leading below." he then gestured to the door adjacent to it. "And that one goes up!" Urahara trotted along the corridor with the teenagers (And technical old women) trailing behind. He opened the door to the right and led the group in. "This, is the kitchen!"

"WOW!" called out Orihime in happiness, happy to have a location to make her odd meals in.

"That's right! This is the location where all the real cooking takes place!"

The kitchen itself was quite spacious. There was a table positioned in the middle, to give room for the chef to put all manner of foods and equipment. Around the outside of the room there were various cupboards, ovens, fridges, storage areas and even a toaster, with enough space on the side anything. A door could be found at one end, when Chad opened it up it revealed a large storage area for all the various goods that would need to be carried to feed a ship of pirates.

"Bloody hell Urahara! Why is the kitchen so damn large!" Asked Uryu.

"Simple. When I built the ship, I needed something to take up half of this floor, a kitchen and a storage room seemed to fit the bill!"  
"So the kitchen is so large because you were too lazy to add a third door to the corridor and were too lazy to think of a third room on this side?" Asked Ichigo with a dead pan look on his face.

"Exactly!" Stated Urahara happily, as he waved the fan he pulled out of nowhere.

"OOOOOH! This is perfect!" Stated Orihime as her eyes glowed with happiness."I can finally make red bean paste and buttered sweet potatoes for everyone!"  
"NO! I mean- don't go to the effort!" protested Ichigo quickly, eager to avoid Orihime's dreadful cooking. He was backed up by Chad and Rukia's frenzied nodding.

"Yeah! No need to go to the trouble!"  
"You don't have to bother."  
"No no! I like cooking! I never get the chance to cook for everyone!"  
Urahara was smirking in the background. "OOH! You can stay for dinner too, Mr Urahara!"  
The captain paled. "That's dangerous talk that is! Quick! Out of the kitchen before she gets any funny ideas!" Urahara ran out of the room, followed by everyone except Orihime, who followed a little reluctantly.

XXXXXXXXXX

"This, is the general living room!" stated Urahara as he led them into the fourth door in the corridor.

"Brilliant!"

"Pretty good Urahara."  
"Not as good as the kitchen!"

"Okay."  
"Is that a Nintendo I see?"

"Yes... that is a Nintendo you see before you Mr Ishida."

"... best... Shinigami...ever!" the Quincy stated as he stalked over to the plasma screen TV.

"He has a secret passion for JRPG's!" whispered Orihime to Rukia, informing the Shinigami of one of Uryu's best kept guilty pleasures.

"I do _not_ have a secret passion for JRPG's... I like the music."  
"Lame excuse Ishida."  
"Piss off Kurosaki... X-Box bummer!"

"... COD's cool."  
"N,o its repetitive and that is it."  
"Now now boys!" said Urahara peaceful. "We all agree that X-Box and Nintendo are both good... just not as good as Playstation."

"AYE!" said Chad, Rukia and Orihime from behind.

Ichigo stared at Chad. "Traitor."  
"Sorry, Ichigo... I just think X-Box copies Playstation a bit... that's all."  
"Not speakin' to you." Ichigo stormed off to the luxurious sofa.

The living room was pleasant all round. It was a large square room, decorated with bright white paint. Three large windows allowed light in, and the furnishings of the room were clearly well made. A large plasma screen TV stood against one wall, a Nintendo Wii, an X-Box 360 and a Playstation 3 all plugged into it. Various popular games stood on a set of shelves on the wall to the right of the TV, a slight raised block in front of the games to prevent them falling out during bad weather.

"That is more than a TV, this is also your communication. Instead of receiving day time TV, you get video chats with me. YAY!"  
"YAY!" Said the rest of the room enthusiastically.

There was also a set of four sofa's, all made of soft brown fabric, arranged in the centre of the room. Three were positioned to make an incomplete block in the middle of the room, while the fourth faced said TV. The third wall was empty.

"That wall's for your bounty posters... our good friend Ichigo here, attracts trouble so frequently it will be impossible for you _not _to get one."  
"So what are we anyway?" asked Rukia from next to Ichigo on the sofa. "I was briefed but you know the Head Captain. He left bits out."  
"Simple, you are whatever you want to be. Become a government dog, be a pirate, bounty hunters, whatever! As long as you remain loyal to us and not to the World Government, Soul Society will be fine with your decisions.

"What's in there?" asked Chad, pointing to two doors.  
"The one on the left is the toilet... right door is the dining room."  
Ichigo got up to check out their dining room. It was smaller than the living room but still held a large mahogany table which could easily host 12.

"Time for the first floor!" stated Urahara, who was now continuing with the tour.

The group went up the stairs and found themselves in a second corridor. There were four doors, all on the right hand side.

"Mystery door number one!" the shopkeeper opened the door with a flourish. "the medical room!"

Inside was a clinical white room. A large window let bright light into the room. There were three beds, with fresh sheets, by the side of each other in front of the window. A large bookcase held a range of medical books on the first two lower shelves. The remaining four shelves were taken up with various bottles of medicine. A plain desk was near the door, and a white doctors coat hung on a hook by the door.

"Oooh! You mentioned that I was the crews doctor! Does this mean that this is my room?" asked Orihime as she looked round at the peaceful room.

"Of course! This room is yours, fully stocked so you don't have to constantly use your powers. I recommend you read a medical book or two on your travels."  
"Okey dokey, Mr Urahara!" said the busty teen, as she slipped on the doctors coat.

"I don't mean to rush you, but the tour must go on!" the group was led back to the corridor.

"Mystery door number two! The library!"

Inside was a dark room, illuminated by a few candles along the wall and a lamp on the desk in the middle. The room itself was quite large, and had bookcases along all the walls of the room. There was a comfy reading chair in the corner. On the table in the centre, there were various pilaged maps, showing what appeared to be a world map and several other specific locations. Navigation was probably also done here, as well as general reading. There was an air of calm about the place.

Uryu strolled up to the nearest bookcase. "What sort of books are here?"

"Hmmm, not sure really. Most of them were nicke- I mean, _borrowed,_ from the other ship. Others are books from the Seireitei's personal library, to help educate you while out here."

"So it will be up to us to fill them in? I notice quite a few empty shelves."  
"Yes, still Kurosaki!"  
"What?"  
"There are a few boos on Kido and spiritual control... maybe you should read them sometime."  
"very subtle hint Urahara."  
"I do try."

The group was frog marched past door three and were led straight to the last door.

"Mystery door number four! The stairs!"  
"Excuse me, why did we avoid the third door?" asked Rukia casually.

"That room is Mr Kurosaki's, AKA the Captain's room... if you ever mutiny, that is the place where you'll sleep."  
"Thanks for the tip."  
"Oye, midget! No mutinying, you got it?!"

"No promises."

Urahara led the group through door four, stopping to unlock the hatch before passing the key to Ichigo, he showed them the Helm.

"This," he stated, gesturing round. "Is the helm and general second deck area."  
The deck area was generally average. Nothing really stood out, except for the large steering wheel attached to a large piece of intricately painted wood.  
"Steering will be done from here. No other obvious features, if you want to put something up here, its up to you."  
"What if pirates attack or something?" asked Ichigo. "Not that I care and all, I can Shunpo down to the bottom deck to kick there asses but what about Orihime and any humans who may end up joining the crew? Isn't it inconvenient having to go through all the ship to get to here?"  
Urahara answered the question by pressing a green button on the side of the helm. A clicking sound could be heard. Ichigo went to the two areas on the ships railing, which had just lowered into the deck. A rope ladder had shot from a compartment to create a ladder down to the lower deck. When Urahara pressed the red button, the ladder was pulled back inside and the railing raised.

"Back inside people... and dead people." Rukia scowled before following him.

"Here we go! Random corridor three!" the group had now taken the unopened door to go down into the bowels of the ship. Three doors were spread across the right wall, the left wall had small circular windows. "Door one- Men's cabin!"

Inside was a slightly larger than average sized room. Plainly decorated, it did its job as a bedroom. To the right of the room were three low beds, and above them were three hammocks. The left hand side of the room had 8 lockers, all a dark green colour.

"Three beds to the right for large sleepers, and some hammocks above for a piratey feel."

"No thanks." said Uryu with a disdainful look. "I will not sleep in the same room as Kurosaki, he is a Shinigami."  
"Part Quincy." muttered Ichigo.

"Besides the point! I shall sleep in the crows nest! I will take one of those lockers of course!"

Besides this, there were also three cannons positioned against the far wall, where three hatches could be opened. A large blue rug took up the centre of the room, a low table in the centre. A side door led to a small bathroom, for night time use.

"It will do." was all Chad's statement was, before walking up to the a locker with a chibi picture of his face on it.

"I took the liberty of placing spare clothes inside an easily identified locker for you."  
"... Hate you... so much."  
"On with the tour!"

Next was the women's quarters. Altogether it was a lot nicer than the males counter part. Four beds were up against the left wall, some wardrobes against the right. There was also a door leading to a spotless bathroom on the right wall.

"Oh sure," Grumbled Chad. "Girls get a wardrobe, men have a locker."  
"Yes, lockers are manly."

There were also cannons up against the far wall, to match the males.

"If anything the architect who made this ship was a bit stupid. Due to the layout of the rooms, there is an uneven amount of cannons on each side. If you want to barrage the enemy, I recommend that you face them using your right side... who was the architect again?"

"you were." reminded Rukia.

"Oh right... next floor!"  
"When the hell will this tour be over?" questioned Ichigo quietly to chad.

"As the Mexicans say: "Fuck knows.""

"Everyone says that, not just the Mexicans." reminded Ichigo. Chad did not reply.

Urahara led the group to the bottom floor. There was another corridor, this one with four doors.

The shopkeeper briefly opened the first door. "This one is the bathroom, no explanation needed. Look at it later."  
Door number two was then swung open to reveal a small square room. It was quite dark, but had naturalistic lights coming from above. A soft grey mat was positioned in the middle of the room and a row of candles and incense were aligned across each side. "The meditation room, perfect for Zanpakuto communication." Urahara then dragged the others to the third door, the shopkeeper seemed particularly excited.

"Ooh! Ooh! This is the door I have been looking forwards to!" he sung it open, revealing a metallic room."BEHOLD! The Workshop!"

The room was certainly an impressive workshop, regardless of craft. There were various machines scattered through the large room, many of which only a genius would know what to do with. Tools were all hung up on one wall and a huge metal table was in the centre. "This room will do for any and all creative tasks! Blacksmithing, forging, building, designing, you can do it all in this room!" Uryu seemed particularly pleased with this little gem.

"Anything?"  
"Anything!"  
"OOOOH! Can we build giant robots?" demanded Orihime.

Ichigo simply sighed. Alas, time had not decreased the busty females active imagination. "No, we can't build giant robots."  
"AAAHHHH!"  
"actually we can." stated Urahara with a grin. "If you know how to of course."

XXXXXXXXXX

"And that was the tour."  
"Hey, didn't you leave out that last door?"

"Details, details. It was only a store room/ engine room. I have things to do back at the department." the captain shunpoed onto the dock area. "I wish you luck... you'll need it. I need to get going now. I will be in touch."  
"BYE URAHARA!"

"Bye."  
"SEE YA!" was Urahara's last words before leaving the teens to themselves. They stood around for a few moments before Ichigo spoke. "Okay then, anyone has any ideas how to drive this thing?"  
The other teens (And old women) stared at Ichigo with blank faces, before everyone shouted out "CRAP! WE FORGOT TO ASK URAHARA HOW WE DRIVE THIS THING!"

Orihime then proceeded to run around the deck screaming that the ship was going to crash until Chad grabbed her shoulder.

"First things first," said Rukia "before we deal with sailing, we need to decide positions."  
"Sounds logical." was Uryu's response. He then sat down at one of the wooden seats.

"I'm the Captain, obviously." was Ichigo's contribution to the conversation.

"Of course, its the rest of us we need to decide on. What are the absolutely necessary positions on a ship?"  
"Captain."  
"Cook."  
"Navigator."  
"Doctor."

"Anything else?"  
"Nothing absolutely needed."

"So lets divide the positions. Our Medic is clearly Orihime."  
"Right Rukia! Happy to help, I don't really know much about ships!"  
"I guess. Anyone else with experience on boats."  
No one responded. "That's helpful. We have a _huge _learning curve. I did a day or two on Navigation so I suppose I could be Navigator."  
"Miss Kuchiki, that would work." said Uryu.  
"Shame." Stated Ichigo as he stretched his arms for no reason except to prove how buff he was. "i would have like to have you as a First Mate." Ichigo was oblivious to Rukia's blush.

"Do we _need_ a First Mate?"  
"Can't be pirates without a First Mate."

"Who says we're pirates Kurosaki?"  
"No one. I just know that after a bunch of shit goes down, we'll end up as criminals anyway... we _always_ have figures of authority trying to kill us. Why break tradition?"

Rukia interrupted by pulling out her sketch book. "Lets draw out our positions shall we?"

"Sure... doesn't mean your drawings don't suck." a marker pen promptly smashed into a certain orange head captains face.

"Anyway, the position of cook still needs to be filled."  
"Ooh! Ooh! I can do it!" was Orihime's energetic idea. "I can do both."  
Everyone thought as one _"SHIT! …... Her cooking is crap!"_

"Uummmm! No need for that!"  
"Yeah! Too much work!"  
Can't be both Doctor _and _Chef!"  
"Hmmm. I suppose you're right." was the terrible chefs answer. "Then again, Chad can't do it. He burns everything."  
"Its true. Said Ichigo. "He does."  
Rukia sighed. "FINE! Orihime will be temporary cook. We'll just have to get someone to monitor her."  
"Agreed."  
"That leaves Uryu and Chad."  
"I can be your Sniper and Lookout." said Uryu quickly. "I have taken residence in the crows nest, so why shouldn't I go the full Monty. As a Quincy, it should be a simple task."  
"What about Chad?"  
"No idea."  
"He could be the First Mate." Everyone turned to Orihime, who blushed from the attention. "Heh heh! He's all big and strong and stuff! He could be an okay First Mate."  
"... okay, I guess." Accepted Ichigo.

Rukia clapped her hands together to get the crew attention. "RIGHT! As navigator, its my job to sail this ship! Time for us to figure out how the hell this thing works."

**Hey! I hope you liked this chapter! I know it wasn't as long as the last one and it was really text heavy, but it was necessary. You needed to know about the layout of the ship and the positions the characters have. I have also tried being more descriptive. Please tell me if I am putting in a bit _too _much detail. **

**This chapter was originally going to be longer. I decided to end it here so as to bring out a quick second chapter.**

**Oh yeah! If you have any requests for characters you want to join the crew, please leave a review. **

**A large thanks for such a large response to this story so far, I hope it meets your expectations! Undying Soul out!**


	3. Chapter 3: Shimotsuki Village

**Chapter three**

**AN-Yes, I am updating my story again... expect this to be the last update for a while, going on holiday for a week and THEN I need to update my Bleach Fanfic a bit.**

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN ANY ANIME'S WHAT SO EVER! But I will soon, I plan to hire Pheonix Wright and Miles Edgeworth to create the ultimate team of lawyers and then I will sue Oda and Kubo for somehow stealing my ideas.**

After two weeks on the sea, Ichigo could honestly say that he was enjoying himself. Throughout these two weeks the makeshift crew had experienced various issues with running a ship. On day three Rukia nearly crashed the ship despite being in the middle of the ocean, on day seven Rukia set fire to the lower deck, on the ninth day Uryu caused a minor explosion when tinkering with a cannon and on day eleven Orihime gave the entire crew food poisoning. The young Shinigami was still sure that they wouldn't even make it past the third week. The only unusual thing is that they had somehow avoided getting into any fights. No Arrancar, no Hollows, no crazy maniacs, not even any pirates. Ichigo was fairly sure that karma would kick him in the balls for this period of rest later.

"Mornin' Chad." said Ichigo as he walked into the living room with a bowl of shreddies in his hands.

"Good morning Ichigo." was the gruff man's response. Ichigo sat down next to his friend on the sofa and began to munch on his cereal.

"Thank god Urahara stocked us with cereal, imagine what would happen if Orihime _actually _cooked us breakfast."

"I know. We really need a chef. I'm running out of ways to dispose of my meals while her backs turned."  
"Have you tried the plant pot trick?"  
"We don't have any plant pots Ichigo."  
"We will have to remedy this when we next dock."  
"Indeed." despite the crews protests, Orihime continued to cook her bizarre meals for the entire period she held the title of Temporary Cook. While Orihime cooked, the others members held secret rendezvous with one another to determine the best way of getting out of eating. The group had already gone through all the obvious ones, the handkerchief trick, the toilet trips, the stuff it in a draw and dispose of it later trick, they had been done so much that even naïve Orihime was starting to get suspicious. Rukia often despaired that they were running out of ideas.

"Good morning Kurosaki."  
"Oh, hey Ishida." Uryu Ishida walked into the room with a slice of untampered with toast in his mouth. The Quincy sat down on the opposite Sofa, before continuing with his basic breakfast. "Anything of interest happen during the night shift?"  
"Not really, quiet as usual." Uryu had taken to doing night watch. Ichigo originally suggested they take turns staying up at night to keep an eye on things. This idea was turned down by Uryu. His pride as a Quincy would not allow anyone to share his job as lookout. To compensate for this, the Quincy sleeps in during the day. He would often take a large afternoon siesta and would snap at anyone who disturbed him.

"Morning everyone! Can I make anything for anyone?" asked Orihime as she entered the room. Orihime had taken to wearing an apron when performing cooking tasks, a doctors coat when not. She wore her plain white apron now, she was deadly serious about cooking something.

"NO NO! I mean- don't bother! I have some toast!"  
"YEAH! I umm... I already have some cereal!"  
"Not hungry."  
"Now now Chad! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day! It looks like I will just have to make you something."  
"NO! Please no! I had something earlier!"  
"Nothing in the dishwasher." said Orihime, oblivious to the scared look on the Mexican's face.

"Keep looking... the bowls there somewhere."  
"Don't worry! I'll just have to make you toast and soya sauce! OOH! We can have chopped melons too!"  
"No! Please Ichigo, save me!"  
Ichigo gave him a bored look which clearly said "If she is making you eat something, she can't make _me _eat something."

"Come on Chad!" said Orihime as she dragged Chad into hel- I mean, the kitchen. Uryu simply sighed at his large friends pain and finished his toast.

"I'll see you later for training Kurosaki!"  
"You were serious about that?"  
"Of course! You may not be a true Quincy but it is still a disgrace to our race if one of our own can't even do basic Reshi manipulation."  
"Why should I have to? I can just bust out Zangetsu and kick ass if I have to."  
Uryu sighed before continuing. "That's not the point, its the principal! You have Quincy heritage! I know you feel that me teaching you a bit of Quincy stuff is pointless, but what if you end up in a situation where you can't use your Zanpakuto? Your Blut is not enough."  
"Simple, I'm learning Kido now... sort of. I _actually_ managed to pull one of the other day."

"Sure you did. Was it supposed to explode?"  
"Not sure really, either way, in my book, explosions equal good!"  
"I give up. See you later for training."  
"Fine." Uryu left the room. Ichigo just sighed again in annoyance. About a week into their voyage, Uryu had approached Ichigo and offered to teach him basic Quincy craft so that he would have a backup if necessary. Ichigo had originally scoffed at the idea of using something which was not Zangetsu. The orange head later warmed to the idea after a talk with Zangetsu in his inner mind. Thus Ichigo Kurosaki's Quincy training had begun. Ichigo was useless of course, Uryu said this was to be expected, at least until Ichigo had learned a bit more on Reiatsu control from the library.

After putting his bowl on the kitchen side, Ichigo decided to settle into the usual routine.

On an average day on the Midnight Cutter, a certain routine had been decided. After breakfast Ichigo would go help Rukia with the navigation of the ship in the library (Rukia got up early to have her breakfast before Orihime was up) while Chad manned the wheel to keep the ship on course. For the first week or so navigation was terrible. Two days of teaching could not grant the experience needed to steer a ship. It was lucky that Rukia picked the job up so quickly. Uryu at this time, would be doing his own personal training to get himself back into shape before the main fighting started. Uryu Ishida decided at the start of this adventure that he refused to be left behind strength wise. Uryu had become an extremely powerful Quincy in the Vandenreich war, especially after learning Quincy: Vollstandig. Due to lack of need, Uryu had not bothered to maintain or train his powers until his recent decision to help Ichigo and the Soul Society.

After doing the basic navigational work, Ichigo would take the lead on the steering wheel. Rukia then took this time to read in the library. Sometimes she read up on rare techniques or the history of Soul Society, but for the most part she read popular human world novels. When no one was watching, she also secretly devoured 50 Shades Of Grey when she had the time.

Lunch was next. Most of the time, the crew would attempt to avoid lunch by making a sandwich for themselves when Orihime was distracted. This failed for the most part. As such, four people were forced to endure Orihime's cooking every day, with only the rare escape.

After lunch was Ichigo's study time. Much to the surprise of all, least of all himself, Ichigo decided to learn Kido. In the moment he decided this, multiple rules of the universe were broken and many people died out of sheer confusion on what the hell happened.

Despite his lack of control, Ichigo persisted at it and eventually, through multiple books, figured out a way for him to use Kido. Ichigo lacked the control to needed to make Kido work and as such, this led to Ichigo finally deciding to control his spirit energy, meaning he would one day be able to use the demon spells. Ichigo focused on Reiatsu controlling exercises which would teach him the control needed for Kido. Hado No 1 Sho requires the users Reiryoku in ones hand to spin clockwise when used so that the Kido generates the impact effect is has. Ichigo trained for this by attempting to rotate his own energy. The attempt was successful and led to an increasingly overpowered Sho, but still a Sho.

While this was going off, Chad was at the wheel again. This period of time was also when Uryu took his daily nap. It would start at 1 and end at 7, when dinner was served.

At fourish, Uryu would train Ichigo. The training pissed off both Quincy and Shinigami but was absolutely necessary. For one thing, they both argues and rarely managed to make any progress at all. Secondly, Ichigo was required to do all the basic Quincy training which Uryu had been forced to do as a child. It was impossible for Ichigo to learn any Quincy or Quincy variation techniques until he had been put through the stuff which took Uryu seven years to do. This meant basic conditioning, to make it possible for the human body to accept Reshi in the air, the body must grow used to accepting small amounts through the use of a cross and then accept more and more energy until it is possible to form a bow. The next objective is to gather Reshi in the air using the bow and fire it. While Ichigo was able to skip about five years training due to him already being able to accept and use Reiatsu, he now had to figure out how to use a completely different energy source. Thanks to his exposure to Quincy's in the war, as well as the discovery of how to use Blut, Ichigo could definitely detect Reshi. In the few days training he had had so far, Ichigo had managed to gather a few particles of Reshi in his hands, before losing them.

"Damn it!" said Uryu angrily. "You can't keep hold of the energy! This is going to be damn near impossible until Urahara can get me a spare Quincy cross for you to use!"  
"Can I skip this then?"  
"NO!"

After this training, Ichigo and Chad would spar in the ring, practising there speed and reflexes. Ichigo often won but when he was limited to hands only Chad would often take the lead. Rukia would have taken the wheel at this point.

Next was dinner, the hell none could escape. At seven exactly the anchors would be anchored and the ship would stop. At this point Orihime would personally force everyone into the dining room. She would then serve up what ever messed up recipe she decided to cook that day. That night the meal had been beef casserole with various fruit and vegetables, sweet mashed potatoes and leeks on the side and red bean paste as dip. With no idea of how to escape the meal, Ichigo was forced to _actually_ eat it that night. Ichigo truly cursed Urahara for not putting a plant pot in the dining room.

After dinner things were always better. The group would retire to the living room and talk about what ever the hell they wanted to, while Ichigo and Uryu attempted to kill each other on the Wii while playing Smash Brothers Brawl.

"NOOO SAMUS! You can't die now!"  
"HAH! Your characters weak Uryu!"  
"NO! Your Ike's using its final smash!"  
"HAH! Your dead!"  
"NOOO! Why is it so overpowered? How can a COD bummer beat me!"  
"Simple... I'm Kurosaki Ichigo and I'm absolutely flawless."

Despite their differences, the five of them were still friends. While each of them were as different as cats and dogs, as far apart as the sun and the moon, they still valued their friendship and enjoyed these three hours together every night. Most of the group headed off to bed at ten, except for one or two.

"Night Ichigo!"

"Yeah, see you tomorrow Orihime!"  
"Night Uryu. Night Rukia."  
"See ya Chad."

"Yes, good night."

Chad, Rukia and Orihime would head off to bed at this time, leaving Ichigo and Uryu awake.

"Off on guard duty again?"  
"Of course, a Quincy must be vigilant."  
"Is there a point thought? I mean, we're in the middle of no where."  
"You never know Kurosaki, you never know... are you meditating again?"  
"Yeah, I'll talk with old man Zangetsu for a while. I'm trying to grow some trees for him in my inner world."  
"Yes trees, very nice."  
"Piss off Uryu."  
"Same to you Kurosaki, same to you."

XXXXXXXXXX

Things continued like this for two more weeks, until one morning Rukia finally said they were entering charted water. The group prepared themselves that day, the vacation was over and it was time for the job to begin. The group abandoned all forms of entertainment for themselves and instead helped manage the ship.

Just before lunch, Uryu called from the crows nest "LAND HO!"

"Land ho?" asked Ichigo from the deck.  
"Yes! Land ho!"

"What the hell do you mean by that?"  
"You know, its a sea term."

"..."

"..."

"*sigh* Just look in that general direction and you'll see."  
"Oooooh! Its land."

"Well no? Gather the crew, time to gather some information."

When they approached the island, the crew gathered on deck to listen to Rukia's rant. "Okay then everyone! Our mission begins now! Soul Society's knowledge on the full extent of the world is flawed... greatly. Three objectives. First- discover where we are. Second- find general info on the world we now live in. Three- discover specifics on the threats we will find ourselves in, as well as general knowledge on the World Government."  
Uryu raised his hand "What do we currently know?"  
"Not much. We know the world is divided into four oceans by a large landmass of rock and by some sort of an ocean called the "Grand Line" whatever the hell that means."  
"Anything else?" asked Chad.

"Objective four- if possible, find a chef. Screw secrecy, we tell him we're all dead if we have to. I- DON'T- CARE! If he/she cooks, we take him/her with us. Kidnap them if necessary."  
"AYE!"  
"Ahhhh! Its like you don't want to eat my cooking or something!" No one responded to Orihime.

The ship continued to sail towards the island. Up close it resembled the average Japanese island. It was a circular island of light green fields, small beaches, trees and Japanese style buildings. There was a general feeling of Japanese heritage about the place. The Midnight Cutter sailed into a small dock, a few strips of wood and a small fishing boat or two. There were not many houses in the area and a few fishermen looked up curiously as the large ship sailed in. at first the villagers were tense but quickly relaxed when there was no flag billowing from the crows nest too show they were pirates.

Ichigo jumped off the ship with Chad and helped tie up the ship. The rest of the crew promptly followed. A small man in average cotton attire walked up to the group with an air of intimidation, or at least he tried to be intimidating. His small stature, grey moustache and ridiculous hair cut prevented him from being taken seriously.

"Hello, my name is Katashi... who are you five and what are you doing here?"  
Ichigo, after being gently pushed forwards by Rukia, sighed and decided to do the talking. "Hey, old man. We're sailors who are a bit lost. Can you tell us where we are?"  
"GGRRRGGHHH! Watch your tone boy! You are in Shimotsuki Village, the home of the greatest Kenjutsu School in the East Blue!"

"Oye Rukia! Was this place mentioned on the maps?"  
"Ummm, maybe? Don't know really."  
"Crappy midget navigator."  
"HEY! I don't really know, but I think it is near the Organ Islands... yeah! I think the Organ islands are pretty big! We should get a better idea of what we are doing if we head there."  
"Yeah, we are pretty close to the Orange Islands. We get travellers from there all the time. Where are you from anyway?"  
Ichigo turned back to Rukia to receive an answer. She simply shrugged. Uryu whistled casually, Chad grunted encouragingly and Orihime was spacing out. Basically no one planned an answer.

"Ummm, far away... yeah! An island in the eastern corner of East Blue."  
"Bull crap! There is no island up in that stretch of water."  
Rukia stepped forwards to direct the conversation into a better direction. "Exactly! We are from that island and only discovered there were other people in the world a few weeks back."  
Katashi grunted then laughed. "So what, your island thought they were the only people in the world for all these years?"  
"That is startlingly accurate."

"HAH! That is pretty funny actually."  
"Anyway!" said Ichigo, getting back into the conversation. "We don't know much. Our country sent us out to find out more and report back. Could you tell us some basics about the world."  
"Me? Fuck no. go bother someone else."  
"Mr Katashi," stated Uryu as he glared at the man from behind his glasses. "_who _can help us then?"  
"I dunno! There's a largish town five minutes north. If you buy the lads at the pub there something they might help and not ask too many questions. If that fails you can always go to the Isshin Dojo."  
"THE ISSHIN DOJO!" yelled Ichigo, linking Isshin to his dad. "CRAP! I have no idea what my dad has to do with this place, either way we need to get out of here now!"  
"Your dad! HAH! That geezer Koshiro only had one kid, a girl. Dead now of course. Go to his dojo if you want, he always tries to help those in need ever since Kuina's death."  
"Right! Thanks for the info!" thanked Ichigo.  
"Don't mention it. You can stay here a day or two, if you want. Stock up on food and shit! Then get the hell out of here, yeah!" the man trotted off back to his upturned rowing boat, before returning to fixing a hole in it.

"Right!" said Rukia with a grin. "We know what we have to do! Go to the dojo, the pub and get some supplies!"  
"Who does what though Rukia?" asked Orihime.

"Uryu, you're good at talking. You go to the pub. Here." Ichigo then chucked his friend a small bag. "Urahara nicked some "Belli" from that ship we left as Soul Society. You can use this to get some booze."  
"Won't we need that for food?"  
"That's only a bit of it." said Rukia. "Orihime?"  
"YES!" said the girl cheerily. Rukia shuddered at what this decision would cause. "Go get the food supplies. Chad, go with her and hold the bags. You already have some cash?"  
"Right."

"Keep an eye on her... or rather what she buys.. wink, wink, nudge, nudge."  
"What do you mean Rukia?"  
"Nothing Orihime! Me and Ichigo will check out the dojo."  
"Right."

"Meet back here at six, who knows how long the Captains have until the World Government learn of Soul Society."  
"Got it!" the group first walked to the town. It was a Japanese style settlement, with the houses often associated with rural towns in Japan. No large buildings damaged the gorgeous view and the lack of pollution clearly had positive effects.

"Damn nice town, odd how it seems almost Japanese." remarked Ichigo.

"Then again, Soul Society seems like a mixture of our worlds cultures. No reason why the rest of this dimension is not also influenced." responded Uryu.

"As I said, split up now and return to the ship at six. Got it?"  
"Yeah yeah! Lets get going midget."

"SHUT UP ICHIGO! I am _not_ a midget."  
"Perhaps a dwarf?"

"Don't make me hurt you." Ichigo and Rukia disappeared round a street corner as they prepared to find the famous dojo.

"I suppose I too should leave."said Uryu, who pushed up his glasses. "I will leave now." Uryu disappeared in a burst of speed.

"Okey dokey Chad! We should get buyin'! We should buy red bean paste!"  
"... I'd rather we didn't." and with that sentence the group of Shinigami's and humans split up completely to do whatever reconnaissance they could manage in six hours."

XXXXXXXXXX

Uryu did as he was instructed to do and found the best bar in the town. Coincidentally it was the only bar in the town.

When Uryu walked into the small wooden shack of a building, with a wonky sign on it reading "The Frosty Moon" and walked in, he immediately felt out of place.

Sat around various squat tables, there were many rugged sailors and working class men and women, having some watered down ale after a hard morning of work. Uryu instantly felt he stood out like a crocodile at an alligator pep talk, due to his white and blue suit. Uryu thought that Urahara wouldn't know inconspicuous if it slapped him in the face.

The Quincy pushed his way past a few standing men and found an empty bar stool to sit on. A large gruff man with an apron on came in from a back room and stood in front of Uryu on the other side of the counter.

"Hey Specks!" said the man in a deep voice. "Whatcha havin'"  
Uryu coughed and said "I suppose I shall have whatever everyone else is having."  
"Fine." the barkeeper took a green bottle from the shelve an poured some brown liquid into a cup. "Pay up yeah, yer always pay up front at this pub."  
Uryu dug through his pockets an took out his small bag. "How much?"  
"HAH! Pretty boy has a purse! 100 belli!"  
Uryu slapped the cash onto the table before taking a sip of his drink and nearly gagging. Looking round at the crowded pub, Uryu asked "Is it usually this busy so early in the day?"  
"Of course! All the real jobs are done in the morning and in the evenings. Only time _too _get hammered." Uryu took another sip. Still as inedible as before. "You should leave quick, pretty boy. You don't belong here."  
Uryu sighed. "I agree. Unfortunately I need to collect some information."  
"Yer not a tax man are you? I mean, you do have the shitty suit."  
"No, I am not a tax collector. I am part of an island which has been separate from the World government for all of its life. We have recently become aware of the rest of the world."  
"HAH! Are you reclusive monks with swords or something?"  
"Actually... sort of... I will give you some more money in exchange for info."  
"OH! Your here for info, eh? Not gonna work. If you buy these bastards a drink they won't give you shit. I'll tell you what, 1000 belli a question and I'll tell you what yer what."  
"Fair enough. What do you know about the World Government?"  
"Pay up. I told you: yer always pay up front at this pub."  
"Fine." he got out a few thousand in preparation. "What do you know about the World Government."  
"As much as anyone else. Formed 800 years ago, they are a bunch of posh twats who rule over us commoner. All nations belong to the World Government."

"All of them?"  
"Of course." the man took another note as payment. "Well, not all of them. I heard rumours that some dude called Dragon is helpin' places rebel."  
"Interesting... that could be useful. Where is this Dragon?"  
"Fuck knows! The same as every other overpowered piece of shit on the ocean. You'll find him and every other fucker in the Grand Line."  
"Grand Line?"  
"Yer really are a foreigner, ain't yer?"  
"Yes."  
"No wonder you're so clueless. The Grand Line separates the oceans into four. It is a long strip of sea which spans across the Red Line, a really big rock wall. The pirates and Marines are constantly fighting there. The amount of rookies who died there gave that place the name of "The Pirate Graveyard""

"The Marines! They are connected to the World Government?"  
"Fuck yes! Those spineless boot licker's are in the pocket of the Government! They uphold "Law" and "Justice" an bullcrap!"  
"Are they well liked?"  
"They do their jobs. They keep the really bad pirates from killin' us all. We should be thankful of that. The World Government tries to control the Grand Line, its their hotspot."

Uryu raised his glasses and pondered for a minute, as he attempted to drink his drink again, only to remember what it tasted like.

"Interesting... The Government is found in the Grand Line, I guess this Grand Line will be out next destination."  
"WHAT! You're kiddin' mate! You stand no chance there!"  
"Either way, we will take our chances. Good day." Uryu walked away from the bartender and left the pub, happy to be away from the cheap liquor and the smell of sweaty bodies. Uryu checked his watch. Five hours left.

"May as well ask round." said Uryu out loud as he pondered his next move. "I wonder how Ichigo is doing?"

XXXXXXXXXX

Ichigo suddenly sneezed. "ACHOO!"

"Bless you."  
"Thanks, someone was probably talking about me."  
"You Japanese and your superstitions. Look! That's the place, isn't it?"

After much walking and a lot of asking, Ichigo and Rukia finally found the Isshin Dojo. In front of the pair, there was a large wooden gate with the words "Isshin Dojo: the school of Kenjutsu" printed on the front. A large Japanese style painted wall travelled round the dojo's area.

"Looks okay. Seems a more professional training location than the Urahara Shop."  
"Exactly... .this place has an air of dignity about it."  
"Like you know about dignity."  
"HEY! I am a noble you know!"  
"Could have fooled me." Ichigo took the initiative and knocked loudly on the door. A few moments later a young man with long blonde hair opened the door. "And you are?"  
"Umm, hi! Me and my friend here are here to talk to the guy who runs this place. Heard he is willing to help people."  
"Why should we let you in?"  
"Two reasons. We are fellow swordsmen."  
"This could be a ploy for me to let you in."  
"If this was a ploy it would be much more enticing."  
"Very well, Master Koshiro currently has a class. I will lead you to a waiting room." the man led the two Shinigami to a small room branching off from the main dojo body. It was a simple room, located next to the training room.

"Wait here. He will be with you shortly." the blonde man left the room.

Time passed. Sounds of swords cutting and sheathing came from the next room. Eventually the noises stopped. An even larger noise started as the sound of moving feet were heard. Ichigo and Rukia caught snippets of conversation.

"...Zoro the bounty hunter!"  
"... trained here onc-"  
"... three swords!"  
"...Don't be ridiculous... escaped my ass!"

The sounds stopped again. The Japanese style sliding door opened and a tall man with long dark hair entered the room. He wore grey robes and had a beige jacket with two pairs of red crossing swords on. His face was wrinkled and he wore circular glasses, despite his age he was smiling.

"Hello my friends! I am Koshiro, the master of this Dojo. I was told you wished for some help."  
"Thank you Master Koshiro for agreeing to see us." said Rukia civilly, going into her noble mode. "I know this was short notice."

"No problem. I will listen to your problem, there is no guarantee that I will help though."

Rukia and Ichigo gave a slightly altered tale of what happened, how they were from a country of swordsmen and needed some info on the world they now knew about.

"Oh, samurai from Wano Country, eh? Why would someone from New World need info from a small village in East Blue?"

"Wano Country? Never heard of it." Said Ichigo bluntly.

Rukia elbowed Ichigo and interrupted. "No, we are not from this Wano Country. We come from an island in the north of East Blue."  
"That's just what the world needs, another independent country of swordsmen... then again, if they allowed women into their ranks, they can't be too strong."  
Rukia was barely containing her rage. "Excuse me." she said calmly "what did you just say?"  
"You are a woman, as much as I hate to admit it, a woman shall never be as strong as a man."  
Rukia lost it "WHAT DID YOU SAY?!"  
"Rukia! Calm it!" Ichigo grabbed his friends shoulder.

"I apologise but I am only speaking the truth."  
"How dare you! Women may be less physically strong than men but that doesn't mean we can't be a strong sword wielder! I am a lieutenant! One of the 26 strongest in our military group! How dare you insult me!"  
"As I was saying, I did not mean to offend. I myself had a daughter who aspired to be a swordswoman. I thought that perhaps she would surpass her genders limits... instead she died."  
"SO? There are plenty of strong women out there!"  
"Of course there are, I never denied it. The Pirate Empress being a key example. Either way, she is not as strong as the male Shichibukai and she herself is not swordswomen. My expectations for a woman sword user has not been surpassed."  
"I'LL SHOW YOU! I challenge you, oh mighty Koshiro!" said Rukia with a hint of sarcasm. "I challenge you to a swords fight!"

Things remained tense for a moment, neither party acted. Eventually Koshiro said "No."  
"Why not?"  
"I will hurt you, that is why."  
"I don't care, fight me."  
"What of you, orange haired one."  
"What of me?"

"How can you stand here and allow a woman to try and enter a duel?"  
"Simple, she'll do it anyway... besides... she won't loose."

Koshiro pondered for a while. "Very well then, but we shall use wooden training swords only."  
"Fine."  
"Follow me, I shall lead you to the main Dojo." Koshiro rose gracefully from his seat, Ichigo and Rukia followed him through the sliding door.

The two Shinigami found themselves in a well made sparring dojo, with soft floors and thin walls. From a bucket Koshiro took out a chipped wooden sword, saying "This is all I shall need." he then went into a different bucket and brought out a freshly carved sword.

"Don't handicap yourself."  
"You need every advantage you can get Miss..."

"Kuchiki."  
"Right." he settled into a loose two handed stance. "You have first attack."

"Don't be so arrogant." Rukia settled into her normal stance, two hands on her sword for strength and control "It will be your downfall."  
Rukia remained motionless for some time, Koshiro still stool with a smile on his face, unable to perceive the threat of the small dark haired woman. After a while Koshiro became impatient at the lack of attack.

"If you want to give up yo-" Rukia struck. She dashed forwards with speed just below a Shunpo. She slashed downwards, aiming for an arm. Koshiro raised his weapon to block, the second swing aimed at the chest area nearly hit, until Kishiro jumped back.

"Hmmm. You may be a challenge after all." he struck with the point of his sword, swinging it at Rukia's head. The Shinigami ducked easily and aimed an upwards slash at the chest. Koshiro barley blocked it. The elderly sword teacher decided to out manoeuvre Rukia in order to gain the win. He swung with calm precise strikes, aiming to lure her into a corner. Again and again the wooden blades clashed against one another, sending out fresh splinters and chunks of wood.

What he didn't realise was that Rukia knew what he was doing. When she reached the wall, she jumped backwards, twisting so that her feet hit the wall. She pushed off with her enhanced strength in order to land behind her target. Koshiro, not expecting such a move, was unable to block the sword now at his neck.

"You lost Koshiro... if this was a fight, you would be dead."  
"Yes I concede... I lost." Rukia lowered her weapon. "I must be getting old to have lost to a girl..." Rukia prepared to smack the old man again with the training katana. "... then again... that was a nice idea using the wall to gain momentum so as to surprise me from behind. A woman may not be as strong, but perhaps she can use her wits and brain to be a formidable swordsman."

Koshiro turned to Rukia and bowed. "Congratulations, you have won. I shall offer you any information I have which you may need."

Ichigo, now sat against the wall asked himself "I wonder how Chad is."

XXXXXXXXXX

Chad, now walking in a busy marketplace with Orihime, sneezed "ACHOO!"  
"Bless you Chad."  
"...Thanks."  
"You know, people say that when you sneeze someone is talking about you."  
"...Don't be silly Orihime."

The duo continued to walk through the market. There various fish and meats, with quite a few vegetable and fruit stalls dotted around. Many stalls were filled with souvenirs (in which Chad had trouble stopping Orihime from buying a t-shirt for Ichigo) and other stalls were just junk. At the moment he was carrying several heavy bags filled with food. There was a large refrigerator in the store room and as such, Orihime stocked up on a lot of fresh produce. Apart from this she also selected a lot of goods which would last for a while, in case they were without food for awhile. Surprisingly there was only a small amount of odd ingredients, mainly because many of he ingredients of choice did not exist in this dimension.

"OOH! LOOK! A water melon! We should buy some!"

A few shady individuals sniggered at this. They were four men, in workers clothes who all stared with the same look of indecency at Orihime.

"I don't know!" shouted one. "You already have two large melons!" the rest of the group laughed at this.

"Maybe you would like some cucumbers as well? Think of _all_ you could do with it!"

A fresh round of laughs erupted from the stout, slightly bald men. Orihime blushed at the suggestion.

"Why don't you leave that guy over there for us? We'll show you a real time!"

"N-NO!" was Orihime's response.

"OOOOH! Little miss jiggles thinks she's too good for us. Maybe she won't be saying that when we all have her in an alleyway, eh lads?"  
A round of agreements went round.

"Lets get the bitch!" the four men walked forwards, full of swagger.

"I suggest you stop." said Chad gruffly, standing between Orihime and the thugs.

"OOHH! Lookie here! This guy thinks he can take us on! Show him boys!"  
"I told you to stop. She has no wish to talk with you."  
"Kill him!"

One man pulled a metal bar from his jacket, it was roughly a meter long. He slammed it at Chad's head, barely reaching him due to his large size. The bar hit Chad's head.

"HA! Not so strong now, eh?"  
"I warned you." Chad now had a reason to attack. Once, the Mexican would have never attacked anyone. Only after gaining his powers did Chad finally gain the resolve to fight back and even then he had to have them attack first. The four idiots were stupid enough to attack him so now Chad could use his left arm to strike back.

There was no need to use his powers,Chad simply cocked his fist back, then sent it into the man's face. He was sent flying.

"He hurt boss!"  
"He shrugged off that hit to the head like it was nothing."  
"KILL HIM!" the remaining three men pulled out knives and struck. Chad blocked with his right arm, hardening it with his Reiatsu to imitate an Espada's Hierro. The knifes bounced harmlessly off the skin.

"IT DIDN'T EVEN PIERCE HIM!"  
"HE'S A MONSTER!"  
"RUN AWAY!" The three remaining men ran away.

Orihime blinked a few times. "Should we buy a melon then?"  
"Why not?"

The civilians in the street simply sweat dropped to see that a guy blocking knives with his arm was apparently normal to the busty woman.

XXXXXXXXXX

With the six hours up, the three groups met up again at the ship. After settling in the living room, they decided to reveal what they had learnt.

Uryu started. "I learnt more about the World Government. Apparently they dwell in the Grand Line and the Marines, one of the three major power forces in the world, work for them."  
"Who are the other two power forces?" asked Orihime from her place next to Rukia.

"I can answer that." Said Ichigo "Koshiro told me that in the Grand Line the three power forces are: the Marines, the Shichibukai and the Yonko."  
"Who are the last two?"  
"Fuck knows."  
"I do actually." said Chad. "While Orihime was buying I heard some sailors talking about the Shichibukai. They said Moria was causing trouble, him and the other six government dogs."  
"So there are seven of them?"  
"I asked them and they told me that the seven of them are pirates who are sponsored by the World Government."  
"You mean like how Coke sponsors the Superbowl?"  
"No Ichigo, in return for removing the pirates bounties and allowing them to do what they want, they must follow the governments orders."

"So they are the World Nobles dogs then?" questioned Rukia.

"Basically. They are all really strong."

"How strong?"  
"Really strong."

"What about those Yonko?" asked Uryu.

"I can answer that!" said Orihime. Everyone glanced at her suspiciously. "What? I can listen too! Some shopkeepers were discussing one of them, The Beast Kaido! Apparently he's a bad pirate who controls part of the Grand Line. He is really, really, really scary apparently! He beat up that Moria dude!"  
"The Shichibukai?"  
"I think. There are three others as well."  
"Let me get this straight." said Ichigo, standing up to get his crews attention. "We have a three way power struggle between the Marines, four super powered bad ass fighting pirates and a group of government dogs who mainly do what they want."  
"Basically yes."  
"Anything else Ishida?"  
"A guy called Dragon is leading a bunch of Revolutionaries against the World Government."  
"Brilliant, bloody brilliant."  
"Seems a bit dangerous actually." said Orihime with concern. "Maybe it would be safer for us to stay away from those guys for now."  
"I agree." said Uryu. "We need to plan more."

"Fuck that!" stated Ichigo. "We all know what happens when we plan shit... it _always _goes wrong. No matter how much we avoid a fight, we are guaranteed to end up in fights for our lives where are foes will _definitely _shoot killer lasers at us. We should get it out the way, let's just go to the Grand Line and deal with things as they happen. We'll end up going anyway, why delay the inevitable."  
"That's stupid Kurosaki."  
"No its not. I'm the captain anyway, you have to listen to me."  
"Fuck you man."  
"Fine. Lets have a damn vote. All in favour of my plan, raise your hand now."

Ichigo, Chad and Rukia raised their hands.

"Against it." said Uryu. The Quincy and the medic raised their hands despite knowing they had already been outvoted.

"I win. Let's head to those Organ Islands, prepare for the coming shit and then head to the Grand Line."  
"What about keeping Urahara up to date?"  
"What about it? Fuck Urahara!"

**AN- and now we are at the end of this chapter. Standing at nearly 7 thousand words, I am relatively happy with it. Please rate and review, don't be afraid to PM me if you have any questions or ideas. If you see any mistakes, let me know and I will correct it eventually.**

**Thanks for another positive review. 10 reviews despite this story only being up two days, metaphorical cookie to all!**

**So until next time, Undying Soul out.**


	4. Chapter 4: Slaughter & Stone

**Chapter four**

**AN- I'm back! Only a chapter to go until the bumbling idiot appears (Have a pick, OP has too many idiots to count)**

**Disclaimer: I do not _currently_ own any anime or manga's. Then again, I believe in the theory of alternate dimensions and as such in one messed up world I must own Bleach and One Piece. (Naruto is also less of an idiot in this world) According to Doctor Who "Time is a wibbly wobbley circle thingy" and as such because I may one day have the rights, it means I already have it! Take that Kubo! Stephen Hawkins beats Japanese manga artists! (His wheelchair has inbuilt lasers powered by smugness)**

Ichigo was pissed, a feeling he was getting used to. Another week had passed and according to Rukia they had been travelling in the wrong direction for nearly three days. (Rukia said she had the compass upside down) Instead of a leisurely stroll to the nearby chain of islands, the group had instead gone in the completely opposite direction. The crew had been unable to find any accurate maps of the nearby seas when they had visited Shimotsuki Village. This meant they were as sailing, as Rukia put it "Sailing Blind". What she _actually _meant was "Fuck it! We're hopelessly lost. Lets sail in circles until I recognise something!"

While admittedly not the best plan for a group of sailors, it was good enough and on the fifth day Rukia had noticed somewhere she recognised on the map. Two days of hurried sailing using the Spiritual Engine TM (Powered by Ichigo while Chad kept at the wheel) had finally brought them towards the capital of the Organ Islands, Rouge City.

The Organ Islands were a small series of civilian isles. For the most part the islands kept out of the major affairs happening in the world and as such maintained its safety from pirates because there was honestly nothing worth doing there. The large marine base in the capital was another reason. Only an IDIOT would try to attack one of settlements and risk the wrath of a Marine Vice Admiral living in the nearby base. (*Cough cough* Buggy)

Rogue Island, when compared to the rest of the settlements, was much less rural. As a large port city, Rogue Town had a large dock and as such a large market to go with it. Like many of the other islands, the city was forced to grow on a hill. The stone paved streets with tall two storey houses on either side (All red coloured of course) went up periodically from the dock. The Dock appeared to be the hub of the town, a large Marin base stood to one side of the Dock. It was basically a concrete brick with cannons on. Fairly unimpressive to Ichigo. Most of Ichigo's enemies had tall oversized palaces or strongholds, all mighty, awe inspiring and intimidating. While they admittedly had ego issues, it still made a concrete brick look a lot less impressive.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN WE CAN'T DOCK HERE!" yelled Ichigo from his spot on deck.

"NO! We aren't taking any chances with Pirates!" a short rigid old man with a stick up his ass the size of the Empire State Building was what was currently pissing the Substitute off.

"What the hell makes you think we're Pirates?"  
"No idea! Orange Town was attacked a week or so ago! We can't take no chances!"  
"All we want to do is get some maps and some directions." pointed out Uryu from his spot behind Ichigo.

"Yeah! What's the worst that can happen? There's only five of us after all." coincidentally FIVE overpowered spiritual beings but the point remains.

"NO! Can't take no chances! Leave now! Go bother another isle!"  
"Where the hell do we go!"  
"Anywhere but here! On the way to the Grand Line, go Loguetown!"  
"WHERE THE HELL IS THAT?"  
"LOOK AT A MAP!"  
"You won't let us buy a map." stated Chad loudly. Up until now Chad had remained quiet. The reminder that the giant was here only made the man on the dock sweat more.

"NO EXCUSES! Go now or else I'll have to call the Vice Admiral!" threatened the man, pointing a grubby plump finger at the group. Said group promptly burst into laughter. "THATS IT! Popo! Fetch the Marines!"

A young lad watching from behind promptly ran off.

"LAST CHANCE TO RUN!"

"Fine, bring the Marines." calmly stated Rukia as she crossed her arms and grinned. "We have done no crime. Once we get the chance to clear this mess up, I am sure we will be allowed on our way."

As if God was giving a middle finger to the group, a cannon ball smashed into the mast.

"What the hell!?" a dozen more cannonballs were shot from the base.

"SUBARASHI SANTEN KESSHUN!" **(Great Three Sacred Links Shield)** called our Orihime. A huge triangle of orange energy shot from the hairpins attached to her top. The triangle expanded quickly to form a massive shield which coated the side of the ship currently under fire.

"Nice work Orihime!" called Ichigo encouragingly. That technique had been created by Orihime along with two others during the period when Ichigo lost his powers. Two of them had never been used in combat, only the offensive one had seen a previous fight.

"Yeah! It works well!"  
"WHAT THE HELL! YOU BLOCKED THOSE CANNINBALLS YOU WITCH!"

"SHUT UP OLD MAN!" roared Ichigo, anger clouding his judgement momentarily. He blasted some Spiritual Pressure at the man and forced him off his feet.

"Overkill mate." said Uryu.

"Shut it Ishida! I wasn't gonna let him insult Orihime!" said Ichigo, his trademark scowl on. Neither male noticed Orihime blushing from the act of Ichigo's protectiveness.

"HA! The Marines are here now! You shan't escape!" a large group of Marines were flooding the dock area now. Ichigo simply sighed, before summoning his weapon of choice. "Lets see about that... I called that this was going to happen."

Chad and Uryu sighed, before taking out a stack of notes and handing them to Rukia.

"You owe me half Rukia!" reminded Ichigo before he slung his Zanpakuto onto his shoulder and prepared for the fight to come.

The dozen Marines continued to rush through the dock area, while civilians ran and the base provided support through the use of cannons. Orihime's shield held out. The Marines reached end of the dock and prepared to swing hooks attached to chains, so as to board the ship.

"Allow me." said Rukia, calmly stepping forwards.

"Nyeh, I get that Marine dude when he shows up." replied Ichigo with a shrug.

"Aren't we supposed to be trying to do things peacefully?" asked Uryu as he summoned his bow.

"Of course not!" said Orihime with a grin. "That would be just silly."  
"Agree." responded Chad. "Not hitting someone in the face is ridiculous."

"God help me, I'll be as mad as the rest of you by the end of this mission." said Uryu with a self pitying frown.

"Shut it Ishida! Help Orihime by taking out the cannons!"

With what appeared to be a single arrow shot Uryu calmly stated "Heilig Pfeil." **(Holy Arrow)** a single arrow for each cannon, shot from his bow in a simultaneous arc of graceful arrows and struck each cannon to take it out of submission.

"Thanks Uryu!" thanked Orihime, who took down her shield. Meanwhile Rukia had already taken out all the foot soldiers with a binding Kido. They were all pinned to the ground by blue white energy rods.

"What the hell was that Rukia?" asked Ichigo, who had raised one eyebrow in admiration for how one attack had taken them all out.

"I've been training my Kido up more. Still no Bankai so I have a bunch of high level ones all trained up."  
"Yeah, but what was _that_!"  
"Bakudo No 62 Hyapporanken. **(Hundred Step Fence)** A single rod of energy is flung at the foe before it multiplies into 100. Pins enemies easily."  
"Thats some good shit." commented Chad, knocking out one of the officers who had tried to sneak on from behind.

"HA! HERE COMES STRAWBERRY!" yelled the old man, who was stubbornly gripping a wooden pole to prevent two officers dragging him away.

"Strawberry?" questioned Ichigo. He didn't think they were talking about his hair.

CLASH! A sword swing directed at Ichigo's head interrupted the conversation. Ichigo, swinging Zangetsu, blocked the attack directed at him from behind. While still blocking a second sword was swung forcing Ichigo to jump back.

"Yo! I guess your that Marine dude."  
"I am, I hoped to end things quickly... you survived my first attack... you may be a worthy foe." the Marine was a tall straight fellow, rugged but with obvious muscle despite his slim frame. He wore a water green jacket with rope like ornaments and matching pants. A Marine coat was draped over his shoulders like a cape. He had three distinguishing facial features. One- his eyes were half closed, two- he had a large dark beard and three- he had a long bearskin marine cap on to cover his obnoxiously large head.

"WHA THE HELL IS UP WITH YOUR HEAD?" asked Ichigo.

The marine shrugged and said "Genetics. Now shall we fight? I am Vice Admiral Strawberry."

"Kurosaki Ichigo." stated Ichigo, preparing to fight. Strawberry grasped his two large identical swords with Japanese style hilts, but held them in reverse. "Interesting style. Nice swords by the way." Ichigo dashed forwards and slashed at his opponent. The rest of the crew scattered to give the fighters space. The marine blocked before swinging at Ichigo with his second sword.  
"Thanks, what about you? Odd butchers knife."  
"This." said Ichigo as he blocked a four hit swing combo. "Its name is Zangetsu and it will cut the heavens... literally. Used to be made from my soul, had to reforge it though."

Reforged it was. Zangetsu in Bankai form was shattered beyond repair. Ichigo eventually managed to reforge it into a weapon similar to a Zanpakuto but different. While most Zanpakuto had two forms, Shikai and Bankai, Ichigo had _THREE_! He lost his original forms and instead had all his powers constantly activated at one time. Then again, at full power Ichigo practically killed by coughing and injured himself often with his own super strength.

To combat this Zangetsu (Spirit) placed three seals on his partners soul. As each was released a new form was used. Takkai No Tsuki Ririsu, **(Moon Release Of Battle) **Satsugai No Tsuki Ririsu **(Moon Release Of Slaying) **and Hogo No Tsuki Ririsu. **(Moon Release Of Protecting) **The final one was his absolute trump, it was the form which defeated the Quincy Emperor himself. Its unreleased form looked more like the sword he first used before gaining his own powers. As long and as thick as his first weapon, but with one side curved and shaped in the typical manner of all his butcher sword related weaponry. The handle was a thin strip of bandaged metal with a short flat guard.

Ichigo swung again before dodging the counter. "Strange blade, your soul you say?"

"Less talking more cutting."

"Only being polite. Nitoryu: Katta O Wataru!" **(Two Sword Style: Cross Cutter) **Strawberry jumped back before crossing his blades and swinging. An X of pure green energy surged forwards. Ichigo raised one eyebrow before blocking. The attack pushed him back a few centimetres.

"Not bad."  
"You took on one of my better attacks. Your pretty good." Ichigo raised his eyebrow after seeing that. IMPOSSIBLE! Normal people can't just whip off energy blasts like it was nothing. Life's not like Dragonball Z! Admittedly Shinigami and Arrancar throw off lasers like it was nothing, but still! Shinigami had rules and reasons on why they can use energy blasts.

"Are you a Fullbringer?" asked Ichigo curiously.

"A what?"  
"How did you fire that blast of energy? It seemed almost spiritual." then again, this world was made of Reshi. Any attack was technically spiritual and could wound a spiritual being. It was more like displaced wind which just happened to be green.

"What do you mean? I trained with a sword until I could cut the air itself with my blade. Many have obtained this. Others use similar techniques."  
"Seriously? A normal guy can fire blasts of spiritual wind if they swing a sword enough and call out attack names."  
"... Pretty much, yes."  
Ichigo face palmed. "RUKIA! You hear that?"  
"YEAH! An entire world of sort of Fullbringers! We'll talk about that later! Hurry up with your man off!"

"Enough talk... we should finish this. Use your best attack."  
"Sorry, if I did that everyone here would die."  
"Then I shall strike you instead. Nitoryu: Sutāsutoraikusurasshu!" **(Two Sword Style: Star Strike Slash)** Again Strawberry crossed his blades. He cut quickly with each sword, four times with each in a second. A huge eight pointed star shaped projectile the size of a large table shot forwards quicker than most humans could see... but not for Shinigami's. Ichigo reinforced his blade with Reiatsu and slashed it with vigour, the blade cut it like it was cheddar. The dispelled attack split in half and hit the ocean, while Ichigo Shunpoed up to Strawberry to slash from the side. Strawberry blocked but his sword was cut in half. The blade drew blood and Strawberry was forced to leap back to avoid a second swing directed at his head. The third slash managed to graze his shoulder.

"You cut my attack like it was butter."  
"More like cheese really."  
"Why? Why are you attacking this village?"  
"ME!" raged Ichigo. "I did _nothing_! We came here for supplies but that old fool refused us entry accusing us of being pirates. The next thing I know Marines showed up and cannon balled the ship! We did fuck all! All we wanted were some maps!"  
The Marin Vice Admiral pondered this comment while he gripped his wounded side, having returned the half broken sword to its sheath. Rukia motioned for Ichigo to get a move on.

"All right! We don't want to fight. If you stop attacking us we'll heal you up and go or something. Just give us some directions to the next island so we can buy some maps there."

Strawberry pondered this. "Very well then... I see no reason to stop you leaving, I can't stop you."  
Orihime sighed in relief while Uryu looked on in suspicion. "Then again... you have committed crimes. You have attacked Marines and damaged property. I may not follow Absolute Justice like my comrades but I must still uphold the law."  
"The laws stupid then." pointed out Ichigo.

"Indeed. We attacked you but you must take the blame. It is unfair but I can not allow someone as strong as you to leave and trouble the seas."  
"Not even a pirate." muttered Uryu.

"I said I have to uphold the law... not that I would try to apprehend you. You can leave unharmed... but if you do anything to attract the government's attention I have no choice but to inform them of your recently performed crimes. That will increase your bounty. This is your warning, uphold the law and be careful in the future." Strawberry motioned to his incapacitated men on the dock.

"Right! RUKIA!"  
"Got it." Rukia concentrated and broke the Kido. The men got up and prepared to fight.

"ENOUGH!"  
"But si-" one protested.

"ENOUGH! We retreat to the base... goodbye Kurosaki Ichigo." and with that the Marines left the ship and returned to base. The old man stood there with a smug expression on his face. Chad gave him the middle finger.

"..."

"..."  
"Damn old man."  
"I agree Kurosaki... I agree."

XXXXXXXXXX

After tying off the ship, the group left. After a while of silent sailing, Chad lowered the anchor and Rukia called a meeting.

"Right! We need to discuss what happened! Ichigo, you fought him. What did you notice about him?"

"About Captain class, I think. A bit higher than normal. Maybe Renji immediately after getting to Hueco Mundo but before he began his intense training. If we went all out I may have had to release Takkai No Tsuki Ririsu. "  
Are you sure?"  
"Positive. The dude was holding back. His energy attacks were pretty good. He was a Vice Admiral though."  
"Yeah." agreed Orihime. "Admirals are the strongest right, so he is sort of like second best! Perhaps he's like a lieutenant?"  
"Possible." conceded Rukia. "Probably stronger than the average one. What does this tell us about the military power of the Marines?" asked Rukia like a schoolteacher. She pulled out her infamous sketchpad.

"You gonna write, or you gonna try and kill us slowly and painfully with your artwork?" a thrown pen and sketchbook shut Ichigo up.

Chad raised his hand like a schoolchild. It looked ridiculous since Chad was standing and raising his hand made him seem only taller. "If a high ranked Vice Admiral is middle Captain level, then an Admiral is going to be high level Captain."  
"Exactly Watson!"  
"I'm called Sad-"

"Quiet Watson... I am thinking... with three Admirals, Ukitake, Byakuya and Hitsugya could probably fight them one on one."  
"Then again, Strawberry could be amazingly underpowered. An Admiral could possibly be Kyoraku level."  
"That means that the Fleet Admiral would need to be dealt with by someone like you, Kenpachi or the Head Captain."  
"Yeah, if I went all out I could _maybe_ fight one of the top fighters in this world. Difficult to judge since we have only fought one dude, I am also inxeperianced with Zangetsu's new form."  
"Inexperienced?"  
"Yeah! I only used him for a few fights in the war and for the regular Hollow attacks. My last two forms are barely used. I only have real combat experience with my first release and with my sealed blade... We need to judge other strong fighters before submitting to Urahara." finished Ichigo.

"Indeed, we know one thing though... Soul Society is in serious shit. I heard there are masses of Vice Admirals. Probably outnumber the Lieutenants. Then we have people under them who could easily be strong but haven't gone through the ranks."  
"Like Ikkaku."  
"Right. We could easily find stronger opponents who are a lower level. Ultimately we can accurately say that the Marines are a full Military power and that victory is not assured, especially with our recent losses."  
"So what do we do?"  
"How about Dragon?" commented Uryu, a serious expression on his face. "I don't _like _Soul Society. If all the Shinigami die though, the Soul Cycle will be destroyed and so will the World Of The Living. This revolutionary sounds promising. Perhaps he could be persuaded to help."

"Pirate alliance?" suggested Orihime, who had pulled out a plastic cutlass and an eye patch to wear. "We could crown Ichigo _Admiral _Kurosaki!"

"Request assistance from one of the Yonko?" was Chad's contribution to the discussion.

"NO! Said Rukia firmly. "If we ask a major power for help while we appear in a weak position, they would have a position of power over us. They would want _US_ to fight their battles for them! If we want to get equal help from a world power we need to become as well known as a power house as them."  
"You mean?"  
"Yes! We continue for now but attempt to make a reputation for ourselves. The easiest way would be as a pirate."  
"Not pirates!" commented Chad gruffly.

"Forget that for now, lets head to that Grand Line and see what happens." suggested Ichigo. "We should get back to sailing until another island appears."

"I guess." Rukia sighed. "I worry for brother and the others, they have their work cut out for them."

XXXXXXXXXX

**(With The Captains)**

Head Captain Kyoraku was as pissed off as normal. Three weeks had passed since all the shit had started. After sending Ichigo's team off, one of his first orders was to send a captain to the end of each Rukon District so as to scout and look out for the inevitable return of a ship. Because of the massive amount of paper work a Captain must go through, each Captain had been assigned a week each, in a rota devised by Urahara, so as to ensure that a fresh Captain was always ready.

Week 1- Hitsugya south, Shinji east, Renji north and Rose west.

Week 2- Soi Fon south, Ukitake east, Byakuya north and Kensei west.

Kyoraku was left out because he was the Head Captain, (And too lazy) Urahara was needed free at all times to run Squad 12 and Kenpachi couldn't be made to do _anything_.

After three weeks of relative peace, Hitsugya informed the lazy sake loving Captain that a ship of pirates turned up to pillage the newly discovered island, unaware of the fighters which they would be faced with. Hitsugya eat them all with only Shikai. Soi Fon later tortu- I meant, _interrogated _the prisoners and found out some interesting things. Urahara added some more data into his super computer about the brave new world. (added to the weekly reports Rukia secretly kept sending despite Ichigo's reluctance and as such was done without him knowing)

One thing was certain, the Chinese Whispers game which was a stick of dynamite waiting to explode would reach the ears of the Government. The pirates learnt of this place from some drunk sailors of the second ship that originally sailed here. Said ship of drunk idiots were going to reach a major Marine city in about a weeks time, unaware of the shit they were starting.

"I should have let Soi Fon hunt down and kill the escaping sailors... harsh but it would have been safer for us... too late now."

"I disagree, a violent action would only accelerate things with the World Government." stated Ukitake from the door to the Head Captains office.

"Hmmm, I didn't hear you. I must be getting old."  
"Old, but hardly like the old man yet." joked the white haired Captain.

"I wish he was here... he'd know what to do."  
"I know... I miss him too." Ukitake went to the low tea table Kyoraku was sat at and sat down beside him, depositing a large bowl of sake onto the table.

"Ooh! You know just how to deal with grief my good friend!" said Kyoraku with a grin as his and snaked forwards to snatch the bowl.

A Petit and angry lieutenant appeared from her hiding place in the attached bathroom and threw a large rock at the sake. It hit Kyoraku on the head. "OUCH!" a second was thrown which shattered the bowl, spilling sake everywhere.

Kyoraku sank to the floor in despair. "NOOOO! My precious sake! How could you my precious Nanoe!"  
"No drinking while at work." was all she said before diving out the window with all the grace a woman could do in her position.

"NNOOOOO! I thought I checked the bathroom!"  
"Did you check in the bathtub?" questioned Ukitake as he stared mournfully at the expensive sake he brought to the table like a lamb to a chopping board.

"AHAH!" he dashed to the window before shouting "I KNOW YOUR HIDING PLACE!"  
"I HAVE OTHERS!" was the response.

"Curses!" cursed Kyoraku cursingly.

"Good thing I brought seconds." said Ukitake. He brought out a small bottle. Nanoe promptly burst from the bathroom _again_ and smashed the bottle. Ukitake began to cry.

"WHY?! And how the hell did get back in the bathroom so quickly?" muttered the Head Captain with tears in his eyes.

"Shadow clone!" yelled the clone as it stabbed itself with a kunai and burst into smoke.

"COME ON! THAT ISN'T EVEN IN OUR SHOW!"  
"So?" called Nanoe from an unknown location.

"What did the Soul King say about breaking the fourth wall?"

"Only do it in humorously inappropriate situation?"  
"DAMN! I forgot that if done for the purpose of humour the author can completely disregard _any _common sense! **(AN- Shameless 4****th**** wall breaking!)** WHY?!"

"He just can." said Ukitake from next to him. His tear filled gaze still stared at the spilled beverage.

"I suggest you quit while your ahead before he writes a completely unneeded yaoi fan service scene between you both." suggested Nanoe from the window.

"NO! THE HORROR!"  
"I know." said Ukitake. "He's not my type."

XXXXXXXXXX

**(With Ichigo)**

Then next day Ichigo experienced his first Pirate attack... quite honestly they disappointed him. About midday, just before lunch, a large black ship with a green hull had attempted to attack them. The mast had broken off and it was held together by a rushed job of frenzied wood panelling. Their Captain, a guy calling himself Kuro, tried to assault their ship for food. After sailing for days on end without food, the crew was desperate enough to attack the Midnight Cutter.

They lost easily of course. Chad beat up two furries dressed as cats, Ichigo fought the cannon fodder fist to face, Rukia beat up a Michael Jackson impersonator called Jango and Uryu dealt with the Captain. It was a short fight. Uryu attempted to stretch out the fight to study power levels but even with his super speed technique, the Quincy's arrows were faster. He was torn to ribbons after the third barrage of basic arrows. After Orihime gave the evil bastard a small patch up job, (and while Ichigo instead kicked him in the face) they threw the crappy crew back onto their own ship before returning to sailing while Uryu got some rest in his snipers room.

"That was easy" remarked Ichigo afterwards at the wheel.

"Indeed." said Chad. The gentle giant was staring off into the distance with a look of concentration on his face. "Too easy. He claimed to be on of the top five pirates currently at work in East Blue."

"East Blue is the weakest ocean." stated Rukia as she took compass directions.

"OOH!" cried Orihime as she jumped up and down like an excited school kid. "I KNOW! I KNOW!"  
Rukia sighed at her enthusiastic friend. "What is it?"  
"I heard from _another_ shop keeper when we were getting supplies that East Blue is the weakest sea and has the weakest pirates."  
"... Could of told us that sooner."  
"I was too busy thinking of what to make for dinner... speaking of which... we missed lunch."  
The other crew members shuddered in fear as the temporary chef pulled on an apron.

"We really need a proper chef." commented Chad in tears as he marched to the dining room to meet his cruel culinary fate.

XXXXXXXXXX

One more week passed in the blink of an eye and life continued as normal. Orihime continued to slowly kil- _feed_ the crew, Chad remained vigilant at the wheel and Ichigo continued his Quincy training with Uryu. The substitute, of course, made no real progress. The Kido exercises were giving Ichigo better control but it was still nigh impossible for him to do anything nearly as difficult as Kido or Quincycraft. Ichigo was able to gather a bit of Reshi from the air. Uryu remarked it would have to do until the lazy ex-shopkeeper transferred his training tools.

Amazingly, despite all odds, Uryu had managed to persuade Orihime to make something which _did_ _not_ suck. After weeks of badgering the group finally had scrambled eggs on toast _without_ any odd ingredients. Chad remarked he could die a happy Mexican.

"OOH! OOH! An island!"

"We can all see that Orihime."  
"AAAAAAHH! Killjoy Uryu!"  
"Yeah!" said Rukia. "Stop making Orihime sad."  
"I'm no-"  
"Can I shout LAND HO?"

Uryu sighed in response. "Fine... say the damn line."  
"LAND HO!"

"..."  
"..."

"Better now?"  
"Much, lets dock up shall we?" Ichigo climbed up the ladder to the upper deck and prepared to steer the ship into port. The far away island was rural like so many of East Blue's. The island was a small crescent shape and much of the inside of the curve was beach coloured with what appeared to be black sand. Ultimately this led to Mikadzukikei Island becoming a fishing settlement, much of the small village was inhabited by various fishermen and women, as well as their children. As one of the Conomi islands, the village ha suffered terrible damage... Ichigo would not discover the cause until he landed.

"Bloody hell." was all Ichigo could say.

The sight in front of him chilled him to his bones. In fact, the sight in front of him made him want to stab someone, all he needed was a target. Mikadzukikei Island's village was destroyed, that's all you could describe it as. Destroyed. Ruins. Rubble. Dead. The modest houses on stilts along the beach, torn down and burnt, the decking of the dock, cracked and stained with blood, the simple boats which ferried simple folk across their limited stretch of the sea, wrecked on the beach, the town hall once large and magestic, now half destroyed with three hung up corpses to decorate it. From afar the village appeared fine, enough buildings remained standing to provide a false sense of security. Up close the truth was very different. The structural damage was not the worst, the corpses were. While the ruins appeared to be empty, if you looked carefully you could see the rotting corpses of the villagers left in piles and in pieces, in houses or in the forest, alone in an alleyway or wrapped in their families embrace as they were killed mercilessly. None were buried but many were burned. Ichigo realised the sand was not black, it was simply a thick layer of ash covering the sand.

Tears flowed from Orihime's eyes as she rushed to the nearest bodies, hoping for a survivor. The rest of the group, even Ichigo, could sense not an ounce of spiritual power from the village. Deep down even Orihime knew no one lived here now.

The group walked in silence and Ichigo's rage only built up. They went from one house to the next, Orihime checking every body for any signs of life. Ichigo had seen similar sights in the Rukon District during the war with the Vandenreich, so had Chad, Rukia and even Uryu despite him being on the opposite side for awhile. Orihime had _not_. This sight of death was unknown to the girl who's innocence was defended by Ichigo like a priceless treasure. He wanted to stop her but he knew that checking every corpse was something she wanted to- no, _had_ to do.

Chad had not spoken a word, the scenes here reminded him of some of the famine which struck Mexico while he lived their. Death and confusion and poverty and poverty and terrible poverty. That had been one of his reasons for moving to Japan. His fists unknowingly clenched. He knew what Ichigo was going to do and he was determined to help kill the bastards which had done this.

And so the Karakura group wandered and finally they found the only spiritual pressure in the entire village. By the side of the thick forest, left untouched by the village destroyers, stood a lonely statue. Made of a solid grey concrete like material,it was shaped to resemble a wounded man with only one arm. The man the statue was modelled after was thin and lithe, tall but not giant sized. The odd thing was he had large bat like wings with a thin rock layer creating the majority of the wing, giving the entire thing the vague look of a humanoid gargoyle. The statue was shown as if in great pain, with a look of pain on its face. It was hunched slightly and gripped a large, strangely real, metal spear with a spiral point at the top, like an old man with a walking stick.

"What the hell?" said Ichigo, still quiet after the sight of the village.

"Its not natural." spoke Rukia as she went up to it. "Its too realistic." it was too well chiselled, not even a master sculptor could make a statue this realistic. As Rukia prepared to touch it, the wings slowly began to move, cracking and groaning as the movement began. Rukia screamed and jumped back in shock. Ichigo drew Zangetsu.

The entire statue was writhing now. The shoulders shifted, the neck creaked and the knees shook. With great effort it took a step forwards. Orihime dived behind her protector for safety. The strangely human face looked at them with urgency before opening his mouth, forgetting his face was rock. It blinked its eyes and like a snake sheds its skin, the man shed its stone. The wings crumbled into nothing, leaving a trail of stone shards on the floor. Cracks covered the body and as the man continued walking he shook himself slightly while still limping. Segments of rock left his body and revealed skin. Bit by bit, with every step shakily taken, the stone left his body in favour of the floor. The remainder of the rock somehow regressed back into his skin. The man now stood wearily a meter away from Ichigo. The man was shown to have pale skin, short military cut blonde hair with sideburns. He wore a tattered grey t-shirt and worn out black trousers. With great effort he managed to say "Thank god... people." he then collapsed.

"DAMN!" despite the creepy rock skin thing, Ichigo dashed forwards and hastily held up the man. He felt wetness on his skin and saw that a large amount of blood was covering the man's side. "ORIHIME! Help him!"  
"Bu-"  
"DAMN IT! He looks bad!"  
"N-NO!" the man quickly said, despite having a large hole in his side leaking blood as well as the whole no arm thing. "Please! Listen to me."  
"No." said Ichigo calmly. "I don't know what happened here but I _want_ to know! You could have done it.. rock man. Morally I can't leave you like this, enough death has happened here."  
"How long have I been out!" the man demanded. "Damn! They could have died months ago for all the good it did!"  
"ORIHIME! Heal him!" the hesitant healer prepared to use her powers.

"No time! My final technique has managed to delay it but dying _will _happen! You must know what occurred!"  
"Your in no condition to talk." said Chad sternly as he rushed to Ichigo's aid and helped lower the man to the floor, ready for healing.

"NO! THAT MAN... NO, THING! He did this! _He_ did this! Twenty one villages his crew controls! The Conomi Islands are his!"  
"Shut up!" Roared Ichigo, physically forcing the man down. Even half dead the gargoyle man was strong.

"You don't understand!"  
"YES! I DO UNDERSTAND! We all do! We have all fought to protect those we love! We have all seen scenes like _that_!" Ichigo thought of the bloody village. "We _do understand_!"  
"Soten Kisshun!" stated Orihime as her powers activated and an orange half oval barrier formed around the wounded man.

"NO! I have NO arm! I'm going to die! I accept that! You have to listen to me! Pass this message onto... WHAT THE HELL!" Orihime had managed to start repairing the missing arm. "NOT POSSIBLE!"  
"Technically we are all odd." stated Uryu as he pushed up his glasses. "Even by our standards, Orihime's powers are odd"

"This is- this is amazing!" tears were streaming down his face. "I can- I can do it! One last chance! The bastard will die!"  
"SHUT UP!" Ichigo used his spiritual pressure to shut the man up.

"Haki!" whispered the man. The healing had finished the arm and was moving onto the large hole in his side.

"We'll hear the story later." said Ichigo. "He was the one who did _that_, right?" asked Ichigo. They both knew what _that_ was, they all did.

"Th-thankyou!" roared the man. He was still looking at his new arm like it was going to fall off.

"No problem." said Orihime with a smile, thinking that she was being silly about being scared of him. He was too human to be a monster and even if he was a monster, there could still be humanity left in him. She then remembered a certain Arrancar who she had failed to teach humanity, she regretted not doing more... that fight could have had a much better outcome.

"Who are you anyway?" asked Rukia. "What the hell was that stone thing you did?"  
"The names Yamada Yoshiro!" stated the man, tears still forming at his saviours. Yamada never expected to live past the day he was released from his own technique. "That stone thing, was the powers of my Gagoiru Gagoiru No Mi. **(Gargoyle Gargoyle Fruit)** When _his_ crew came here to deal with that pesky island who was too poor to pay taxes, I challenged him to save my family."  
"What happened?"

"He beat me... simple. I fled here and used my self forbidden technique Mugen No Chozo: Furu Ishi Kawa **(Infinite Statue: Full Stone Skin) **to suspend my body in its current state, as a statue, until someone would eventually stumble across me. At this point the technique was designed to reverse."  
"So you became a statue to suspend your wounds so as to be able to possibly warn other islands?" asked Uryu. The Quincy planned to question Yamada later concerning "Devil Fruits".

"Indeed." stated Yamada, flexing his arm from the floor to check that its return was not an illusion to make his passing easier. "I knew that the chances were remote but I _had _to hope someone would stumble across me. You see, my profession is that I am a free lance mercenary and bounty hunter. I am often away from my home hunting in the Grand Line."  
"YOU have been there." asked Rukia with urgency, he might be just the break she was looking for, an experienced sailor in the Grand Line would do wonders if persuaded to join.

"Yes, I am well versed in Paradise. I came home to visit, only to learn my village had been conquered in my absence. I went to the Marines, the corrupt bastards ignored me." Rukia could feel for him, the recent experience with Strawberry left a bad taste in the nobles mouth.

"No help from them."

" Yeah, I went home and found out that the fishers had a bad haul, not even enough for the children to live. When the tyrant came I fought him and his crew."  
"You said you lost."

"He was lucky, next time he's going down." Yamada insisted. "I was better than him, his super strength caught me off guard. We fought by the sea so his water attacks were damn deadly considering I fight with rocks. He had no honour either, most of my targets fight me one on one to prevent their crew being hurt... all of his crew fought me at once. I was overwhelmed, an octopus with eight swords took my arm."  
Ichigo blinked several times. He then asked a question which while ordinarily strange was completely normal in the current world. "Did you just say an octopus?"  
"Yes yes!" he said hurriedly. The healing finished and the scars finally closed up, Yamada sighed in relief. "After that it was easy for the others to take me out."  
Yamada attempted to stand, only too fail. "OY! You nearly died! Stay down!" demanded Ichigo.

"I thank you for your help, I will repay you later." again he tried to stand but was too weak. "I need to kill that bastard soon, who knows how long I was stuck in full gargoyle mode."

"ENOUGH!" shouted Ichigo. "Don't you get it? We're gonna kill the bastard too! Stop trying to run off on your own, there isn't even a ship for you to leave on!"  
"Exactly, Kurosaki." agreed the Quincy.

"WHAT DO I DO THEN?!" yelled the bounty hunter in desperation.

Ichigo stabbed his blade into the ground and offered a hand to Yamada. "Simple, we fight him together, you for revenge, us to stop a monster. You willing to eat humble pie and accept some help?" for a minute it looked like he would refuse but he then, with some reluctance, took the Substitutes hand and was pulled up, Chad helped him stay upright.

"Yeah... you have a deal." stated Yamada with a hint of anticipation, a Haki user would be an excellent help in dealing with the damn tyrant who butchered his family and friends simply because he was a stupid racist.

They started to slowly return to the village and the gory scene surrounding it. "So then?" asked Rukia as she started to lead the group, plus Yamada into the ruins of Mikadzukikei. "Who is this tyrant we're going to dethrone?"  
Yamada's face settled into a frown. "We are facing the self proclaimed strongest of his kind, the ruler of 21 villages, a fool who only favours money, we are going to kill..." Yamada broke into a sadistic grin which did not suit the man at all "... Arlong The Saw!"

**AN- End of the chapter! Wooh! That took a lot out of me, especially the gory descriptions. At the rate things are going I may need to swap into a M catergory, please let me know what you think f this.**

**Yes, I did just do that. Screw Luffy VS Arlong, we will see Ichigo VS Arlong next chapter! Strawhats finally enter stage right as well.**

**Looking for a beta still.**

**So until next time, please rate and review! Undying Soul out!**


	5. Chapter 5: Freedom & Fishmen

**Chapter Five**

**AN-Hello all, I have returned at last with your annual slice of awesomeness in the form of a fanfic. Sorry for the wait, had home problems, exams, other updates to pump out, school, more writers block. Honestly, getting this chapter out was a mess.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothi... you know what? Screw it. We all know who the hell owns both Bleach and One Piece... it sure as hell ain't me.**

**Beta: Full beta credit goes to zem107... damn good beta he is.**

After getting Yamada through the village of corpses and back to the ship, Orihime took him up to the medical room to give him a final once over. Physically he was fine. Mentally, not so much.

"Fine _mostly_," said Orihime with a slight frown as the crew discussed the days events in the living room, while Yamada got some rest in the doctors office. "He seemed to react badly to me when I asked for a blood test."

"Why do you even need to give him a blood test?" asked Uryu. "Can't you just heal him anyway?"

"Hmmmmm... never thought of that." Ichigo facepalmed at this. "It seemed a doctory thing to do. That's what doctors do right? Stab people with giant needles."

"... No wonder he reacted violently."

"He became a bit... unhinged, when I asked him about his family. Started muttering about revenge and stuff."

"Anything else?"

"...Not really. Kept asking when we're going. All he wants is to kill that Arlong guy."

"I have a question." said Uryu, from his place by the door. "He said something about 'Fishmen' and an Octopus. What do we know about the wildlife in this world?"

"Not much." said Rukia, "Urahara said the wildlife's pretty random. According to the captured Captain from the original ship, one animal species is particularly... human."

"The Fishmen?" questioned Chad gruffly.

"Exactly. Don't know much but they're 10 times stronger than humans and can speak the language here easily."

"Not as strong as us though." stated Ichigo.

"Who knows?" said Uryu rhetorically. "Who knows how strong an ordinary human is here. They could be chucking boulders for all we know."

"... Still not as strong as us."

"Yeah... lets punch some talking fish in the face." suggested Chad.

"He's become amazingly violent ever since he completed his Fullbring." remarked Uryu offhandedly.

"My power's like a Hollows... Hollows like punching things in the face."

"If anything," protested Ichigo "They prefer to blow things up with a Cero."

"...Wish I could do that."

"Remember the days when Chad was not willing to punch someone in the face." reminded Uryu.

"Nah!" said Orihime. "Violent Chad's MUCH more fun than not violent Chad."

"... I'm doomed, aren't I Chad?" cried Uryu with anime style tears.

"I pity you Uryu... I used to be like you." said Chad, crying equally as manly as the Quincy, while they man hugged in the background.

"Back on topic," began Rukia, taking out her sketchpad.

"Killjoy." muttered Ichigo.

"What was that?"

Ichigo muttered something vaguely like "Yes ma'am!"

"Anyway," Rukia opened up her sketchbook of doom and showed a badly drawn green chibi rabbit ("It was supposed to be a fish" remarked Rukia) fighting a blue and white chibi rabbit ("IT WAS A MARINE!")

"So what? The Marines like to kill rabbits?"

"NO YOU STRAWBERRY FOOL!"

"...No need to get personal about it."

"The Fishmen are constantly under the pressure of racism. Tension has been high between humans and Fishmen for years; our two races hate one another."

"You're a Shinigami," started Uryu "Technically you're another race as well."

"..."

"..."

"Shut up Uryu."

"Yes ma'am!"

"What's the plan then?" questioned Orihime.

"Simple really." responded Ichigo "We sail there really, really quickly, using the Urahara Engine TM, we bust into that Arlong Park that Yamada was muttering about, kick Arlong's ass, find a chef, have a decent meal."

"Are you saying you don't like my cooking?" asked Orihime with puppy dog eyes. Ichigo contemplated saying yes but decided that she was too cute to say that. Rukia standing behind the terrible chef, with her released Zanpakuto ready to freeze his balls off if he made Orihime cry was another brilliant reason to say no.

"NO! NO! I LIKE YOUR COOKING!" Rukia's harsh glare showed this wasn't enough, "YEAH... I-I- I- I... L-L-" Ichigo gulped at the blasphemous words he was about to utter. "LOVE your cooking." at this moment Ichigo just knew that the Soul King was going to strike him down with a giant lightning bolt for being a heretic.

"Oh Ichigo... just for saying that, I'll make you some snacks."

"Don't go to the trouble."

"No, _No_! I insist."

"CHECK ON THE PATIENT!" yelled Chad and Uryu (Who were still man hugging and crying together in a corner) "CHECK ON THE PATIENT!" they were desperate to prevent her making snacks... they may be forced to eat them along with Ichigo.

"Hmmmmmm. I could check on him, I suppose." Everyone sighed in relief. "I guess I'll just make an EXTRA big dinner." Everyone sighed in disappointment. You could run from Orihime's cooking, but you can't hide from it...sooner or later you'll have to face the music and eat the shit...preferably as fast as possible.

"We really need a proper cook." muttered Rukia negatively.

"Who's up for a game of smash brawl before we have to start sailing the ship?" asked Uryu.

"ME!"

"I AM!"

"Wanted to play COD..." muttered the orange haired protagonist of the story as he reluctantly grabbed a wii remote and stuck the disc in. "I'M IKE THOUGH!"

"DAMN IT! HE'S SO OVERPOWERED!"

"BE MARTH THEN!"

"MARTH'S STUPID!"

Chad growled, "Marth... is not STUPID!" Uryu shrunk back in fear. "I'm Marth anyway."

"Bagsy Pit then." said Uryu.

"Princess Peach." stated Rukia as she took a seat next to Ichigo on the sofa.

"FREE FOR ALL!" They shouted in unison.

XXXXXXXXXX

**(In The Kitchen)**

As Orihime prepared a bizarre sauce for her fish using ketchup, brown sauce and soya beans, she had the sudden urge that she was missing out on the chance to kick Rukia's ass at video games. The roar of "FREE FOR ALL!" Only proved it further.

Orihime leaped for the door yelling "DAMN IT RUKIA! AS ICHIGO'S MAIN LOVE INTEREST I SHALL DESTROY YOU AT A CHILDRENS VIDEO GAME! That shall prove once and for all that I get to have him! MWAHAHAHA!"

The smell of burning reached her nose. "AHHHH! MY SOUFFLE!" Orihime may have loved Ichigo but the soufflé was much more important. "MAYBE NEXT TIME MY ETERNAL RIVAL!"

XXXXXXXXXX

**(In The Living Room)**

Rukia had to fight the sudden urge to yell "BRING IT ON BITCH!"

She had no idea why, all she could tell was that someone questioned her femininity and right to be the main female protagonist, as well as Ichigo's love interest. She held in her desire to yell out obscene filth at whoever dared say she was unfit as a love interest. Instead she destroyed Uryu's Pit character using her own Princess Peach.

"DAMN IT! EVEN RUKIA KICKS MY ASS AT THIS!"

"YOU JUST SUCK! SHOULDN'T A QUINCY HAVE GOOD HAND EYE COORDINATION?"

"SHUT UP KUROSAKI!"

"DDIIIIIEEEEEEE!" yelled Chad as Marth's smash attack took out both Ichigo AND Rukia.

"NNOOOOOOOO!"

"DAMN IT IKE! YOUR OVERPOWEREDNESS LIED TO ME!"

"I WIN! YOU LOOSE NOOBZ!" roared Chad as he threw his wii remote like a javelin out the window. Seeing the normally peaceful Chad calling everyone noobz and throwing remote's out the window was common place now. Chad was really competitive when playing video games.

Ichigo, who had just been respawned and had grabbed the smash ball, used his epic smash attack to finish off Chad's last life, who could not fight back because he had chucked his wii remote out the window not ten seconds ago.

"NNOOOOOO! THE NOOB BEAT ME!"

"HAH! I KNEW YOUR OVERPOWEREDNESS WOULD LET ME WIN IKE!"

An attack by Peach from behind wiped the smile off his face as he too died, leaving Rukia the winner. "YOU LIED TO ME IKE!"

"PEACH POWNS!" it was an average midday activity for the group. Nobody thought of the bloody island while this happened. None of them wanted to think about that place for a long time.

XXXXXXXXXX

Ichigo powered the engine with his Reiatsu for the rest of the day and the ship made large progress. After checking Yamada one more time, Orihime decided that he was perfectly fine. This meant the experienced sailor was able to give proper directions for sailing towards Arlong Park.

"Brilliant!" He said as he saw the amazing speed. Compared to other ships here, the ship was traveling fast. "Fucking _brilliant_! This is like, TWICE as fast as most ships! Seriously, who the hell made this ship?!"

"A perverted shopkeeper." responded Chad, who was staying with the Gargoyle Man on Rukia's orders. He may have acted all right so far, but it was better for someone to make sure he could be trusted before sicking him loose on the ship by himself. "Tell me more about yourself." said the Fullbringer.

"Me?" said Yamada with a smirk. The stone user had obtained a change of clothes off Ichigo and was now dressed in a grey vest similar to the one he was found in and in some plain black trousers, "I told you, I'm a bounty hunter. 'Stone Fist Yamada' they call me. My first bounty was nine million, the second 26 million and my current one is 74 million."

"Million? Isn't that a lot?"

"Not really. Most bounties are at least a few mil. A competent fighter only really shows up after 25 million. Shouldn't you know this already?"

Chad gulped, but kept his poker face. There had been a small discussion earlier to determine if he should be told the truth about Soul Society. Rukia eventually told the group to only give him an abridged half truth.

"Us? We're knew to world dealings." said Chad gruffly. "Up in the North East of East Blue we lived on an island isolated from the rest of the world's affairs. We only heard about the World Government a few weeks back."

Yamada whistled in appreciation. "Wow! A second Wano Country eh? I saw that two of you had swords. What can you lot do?" Chad thought carefully about his response. It couldn't hurt to tell him a brief summary.

"Ichigo is a sword wielder, had a few energy attacks."

"Energy attacks? With swords? Pretty good then, only the best can use a sword well enough to learn to do that." Chad refrained from telling Yamada that from the very start Ichigo was pretty much firing off energy attacks at every little incidence.

"Rukia wields a sword that..." the gentle giant needed a simple way of explaining the navigators powers. "... that, well... has icy properties."

"Bit like a dial then?" questioned Yamada. "I heard Sky Island has a bunch of Ice Dials." Chad had no idea what a dial was but decided it was best to agree.

"Umm, sure."

"What about that Orihime lass? That was a weird power she used." This was the tricky one. If the government found out Orihime had the power to reverse fate itself, then they would do everything they could to obtain her.

"She can heal." was all Chad said, "Moving on," best to change the topic quick, "I'm a fist fighter."

"I could guess that by your large frame."

"... I was always this large."

"...Oh." said Yamada awkwardly.

"Uryu wields a bow."

"Any good at it?" Chad also refrained on saying how the Quincy could fire a few thousand arrows with every shot off his bow. Quincy Vollstandig was another amazingly overpowered thing that he was not going to tell the bounty hunter about.

"Yeah... he's pretty good. You?" another thing Rukia asked Chad to do was to gather info about Yamada.

"As I said, my power is the Gagoiru Gagoiru Fruit... I suppose you have no idea about Devil Fruits either?"

"No."

"Lucky I'm here then!" said Yamada with a cheerful grin. "Devil Fruits have three major types: Paramecia, Zoan and Logia. Paramecias are the most common, your jack of all trades sort of Devil Fruits. They can give you super strength, an altered body, levitation. A guy I knew who could control metallic items was killed a bit before my time... someone else probably has the reincarnated fruit by now, I've probably been a statue for years."

"Reincarnation?"

"Not sure how it happens but I heard that once a devil fruit eater kicks the bucket his fruit can be eaten by another."

"What about Zoan?"

"Shape shifting basically. These give you the ability to transform into an animal. Also quite common. Logias... selling one of these is worth your own weight in gold and more," a sparkle seemed to appear in the man's eye, "Logias allow you to transform into an element. People with Logia powers are next to invincible unless you can counter their element or know Haki like your Captain."

"Haki?"

"Question for another time. My powers are _unique_ though." Yamada sounded pleased about this. "My Devil Fruit doesn't seem to fit in. I don't transform into a Gargoyle like a Zoan user would. I produce stone like a Logia but I don't have any of the invulnerability. Hell, not a mention of it in the Devil Fruit compendium. Perhaps its a weaker strain of a Mythical Zoan Fruit? Who knows?"

Yamada got up from his seat on the lower deck, Chad rose with him. "DAMN! You don't have to keep following me! I'm not gonna trash your ship or something! You guys saved my life... I would have to be a total bastard not to repay that debt!"

"Sorry... Rukia ordered me to."

"Can't your Captain do anything about it?"

"Maybe... then again, Rukia wears the trousers on this ship. Better to keep stalking you."

"Can you just... just give me a minute alone, eh?" a pleading look appeared on the Devil Fruit users face. "If you must keep an eye on me, can you at least give me some space?" Chad nodded to show that this was acceptable. Chad climbed up to the upper deck to see if Rukia needed a hand, while keeping an eye out on the temporary crew member.

Yamada turned his back to the Chad, to give himself the illusion of privacy, and stared at the ocean. That was his favourite past time. It was an odd hobby for a man who would literally sink twice as fast as most fruit users (Made of stone half the time and what not), but with so little to do on a ship when sailing, it was the best he could think of to do. Now though, instead of boredom, he did it for the sense of calm and security the sea seemed to provide for him. Yamada's thoughts turned to the odd crew that had picked him up. Admittedly they seemed a bit suspicious of him, but that was too be expected.

Firstly, they found him as the only person on that bloody island and as such there was no way of him proving that he himself had not done the deed and secondly, he was a bounty hunter. Pirates are normally suspicious of bounty hunters. Yamada liked the group though. Ichigo's blunt personality, Uryu's comedic resignation, Chad's stoic acceptance of everything around him, Rukia's calm assertiveness and Orihime's cheerful demeanour. Hell, they were better than half the ships he's sailed with in his time.

The 25 year old (Or so he thinks of himself as, due to not knowing how long he has been a garden ornament for) liked the crew for another reason. They were strong. He could feel it in his bones. If anyone could help him kill Arlong it was Ichigo's crew. That was reason enough to stick around for now.

XXXXXXXXXX

After a day of sailing, Ichigo was almost happy to have Orihime's cooking... ALMOST!

"YYAAARRRGGHHH! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS SHIT!" was Yamada's eloquent response to having taken a bite from his dinner.

"Calm down!" said Ichigo in a frenzied panic. If he kept things up Orihime would learn how bad her cooking was. That was a fate nobody wanted... after all, Orihime would get angry and when Orihime gets angry people disappear from existence. The power to reverse anything and everything was powerful indeed.

"SERIOUSLY! What the hell are we eating this for?"

Orihime's lower lip was quivering, Ichigo had to interfere before things escalated. "NO NO NO! WHAT HE MEANS IS THAT... THAT... YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE GONE TO THE TROUBLE."

"Really?"

"Really."

"NO IT ISN'T! HOW THE HELL CAN YOU LET HER COOK?" Chad hovered behind Orihime and motioned the universal slit throat sign. Yamada raised an eyebrow, he was unfamiliar with the expression. Rukia took over and showed him a badly drawn picture of a dead rabbit (Yamada) next to a rabbit with orange hair holding a bloody knife, (Orihime) with a picture of some rabbit food uneaten. Yamada ignored the second warning due to the fact that he could not identify who the rabbits were supposed to be. "Shouldn't someone else cook?"

Orihime began to shake, Ichigo knew it was going to happen soon. Ichigo sighed and drew Zangetsu. He then pointed at the food, then at Orihime, and then mimed having his balls cut off viciously. Yamada got the message.

"WHAT I MEANT WAS THAT IT'S UNFAIR OF YOU TO COOK FOR ME!" Orihime stopped trembling. The others gave a sigh of relief. "YEAH... I'LL COOK TONIGHT!"

"Ahhhh! I was just about to put the main course in! We're having beef ramen with soya sauce, egg rice and raw eggs in it!"

"IT'S FINE! IT'S FINE! I'll do it!" Yamada almost ran to the kitchen.

"You're recovering though!"

"PERFECTLY HEALTHY!" roared Yamada as he reached the kitchen door. "JUST PLEASE LET ME COOK!"

The rest of the crew sat down at the table again and sighed in happiness. Even if Yamada was a terrible cook... he had to be better than Orihime.

When the actual meal arrived even Orihime admitted that this food was better than hers.

"YUM! What sauce did you use for the ramen? Not as good as soya and egg but still pretty good!" In the background Chad and Uryu hugged each other in a manly way as they ate some normal food for a change. Rukia simply cried into her food then ate it anyway.

"No biggy!" said Yamada nonchalantly while still wearing the apron which Orihime had been using to terrify the crew with. "You already prepared and made the noodles. It would have been a shame for them to go to waste so I made a beef and vegetable ramen dish I picked up from a guy called Zeff that I worked for a few years back."

"SOOO GOOD!" Spluttered Ichigo with his mouth full, spraying beef chunks everywhere. Ichigo had been drilled as a child by his mother to eat properly at the table. He knew that Masaki would be turning in her grave if she knew how much he was ignoring her table etiquette.

"I know, right?" Said Yamada smugly. "I usually singled my targets so I often travelled by myself. I picked up a bit of cooking from my travels and I quickly realised I was good at it." he then scratched his head and smirked. Yamada had always been a proud person and seeing all these people enjoy his food made him feel content. The fact that he could also enjoy the delicious food he made was another reason for Yamada to keep his skills in the kitchen finely tuned.

"Hey, Yamada!" stated Ichigo as he finished swallowing the little piece of heaven in his mouth. "I don't care what it takes... I am having you on my crew. Once you revealed your skills in the kitchen, your fate was sealed."

"Ichigo... you're scaring me."

"Quiet Yamada! I don't care if we have to bribe you, blackmail you, pay you, threaten you, sleep with you, lock you up in a cupboard or even hypnotise you! Yamada...YOU-ARE-BECOMING-OUR-COOK!" Ichigo then scowled at Yamada and said "Gonna join our crew?"

"Haven't decided yet."

"QUICK CHAD! LOCK HIM UP IN THE STORE ROOM!"

"WHAT?"

"Got it Ichigo!" Chad leapt at Yamada and got him in a headlock.

"CURSE YOU CHAD!" roared Yamada "AND I THOUGHT YOU WERE SANE!"

"...Never admitted to that."

"Say something Rukia!" Pleaded Orihime to Rukia as she saw Yamada being dragged into the storage room in the kitchen.

"I completely agree."

"WHAT!"

"KEEP PRISONERING HIM ICHIGO!"

"GOT IT MIDGET!"

"What if Yamada doesn't want to join the crew?"

"Hell with what he wants!" Was Rukia's response to Orihime's request for giving Yamada rights. "With cooking like that he HAS to join our group!"

"What about Soul Society?"

"Screw Soul Society! They should have given us an actual cook!"

"What's wrong with my cooking?"

"NOTHING! NOTHING NOTHING!" The Food critic incident was still fresh in Rukia's mind. "JUST UNFAIR OF YOU TO DO ALL THE COOKING!"

"What about freedom?"

"Ba humbug! Who needs it?"

"LET ME GO!" Yamada was now tied up in ropes.

"Shut up Yamada!" barked the Quincy. "Gonna join yet?"

"Why are you even doing this anyway?"

"You've tasted her cooking! You must see why we need a decent chef!"

"So true. How about I agree to cook for you until we kill Arlong, then I'll see what I want to do."

"...Very well then. CHAD! Release the prisoner!"

"When did we start referring to the still injured and slightly mad man as prisoner?" was Uryu's perfectly reasonable question.

"Quiet Ishida! Help release the prisoner!"

The Quincy grumbled loudly at this. When Yamada was finally released he asked "DO you really need a chef THAT much?"

"...Imagine eating that for four weeks... no exception."

"Wow, no wonder you locked me up in a cupboard."

"Nice to know that there was no hard feelings about that." Said Ichigo with a smile.

While locking Yamada up was a BIT extreme, the Substitute still felt it was the right thing to do.

"Wrong about the hard feelings." Said Yamada darkly. A dark aura began to surround him. "You tied me up."

"So?"

"Either way I will now cook for you, perhaps even for weeks I shall provide you with delicious meals, but then when you least expect it I'm going to piss in your tea and put chilli sauce in your cereal!"

"Still better than Orihime's crap." said Ichigo with a shrug. "Have you drunk the tea she makes. It ACTUALLY tastes like piss!"

"Don't even ask what's in the coffee." cried Chad as he gripped his stomach at the memory of "Orihime's extra special awesome secret ingredient coffee's secret ingredient.

"What was the secret ingredient?"

"You _don't_ want to know."

XXXXXXXXXX

The next day passed by in an instant for the Karakura group plus Yamada. Yamada continued to cook and Orihime retreated to her position as a medic. As the ship was anchored Yamada informed the crew that at the speed they were traveling they would arrive at Cocoyosi village sometime tomorrow. As the group went off to sleep, Yamada stayed up.

Ichigo, who had just finished meditation with the old man, saw Yamada standing at the front of the ship gripping the ship's railing.

"Yo." remarked Ichigo with a slight wave as he approached.

"Go away Ichigo. You need to rest for tomorrow or else we'll fail to kill that bastard."

"What about you? You need as much sleep as the rest of us."

"No I don't... I'm staying up in anticipation. I can't sleep, after all... soon he will die."

Ichigo knew another revenge speech was about to begin. Constantly talking about how much you wanted to kill someone was probably not a healthy thing. Ichigo inwardly wondered if anyone else was like that.

Elsewhere a ninja emo called Sasuke sneezed and wiped his nose with his sleeve. The Uchiha briefly wondered who was talking about him but quickly retuned to inwardly monologuing about killing his brother and how bad off he was and how MUCH pain he was feeling inside. (Not)

"Look, Yamada," began Ichigo. "I once knew a guy called Aizen."

"Where's this heading?"

"Just listen would ya! Aizen was a guy who comes from the island that I do. A while back he tried to launch a coup against our military group... total nutter. Thought he was god, compared everyone else to ants about to be squashed."

"Can relate to that." said the Devil Fruit user with a frown. "Arlong is a total racist. Thinks his race is SOOO much better than everyone else's. He deserves to die."

"EXACTLY!" Said Ichigo sharply. "Me and Aizen fought, I won. He tried to kill everyone I knew and cared about. He even tried to kill 100,000 people to make a phony key to destroy god or something. When I beat him, do you know what happened? I let him live. He was sentenced to eternal imprisonment."

"You should of killed him." was all Yamada said.

"... I should have. He made a move in the recent war we had and failed for a second time. He's locked up again. He caused us a lot of problems."

"Why does he still live!"

"BECAUSE WE'RE BETTER THAN HIM! He cared nothing for anyone and murdered for no other reason except for his own sense of godhood. Admittedly, he thought he was doing the just thing, but still! We let him live because we did not have to lower ourselves to his level."

"That makes no sense."

"If you kill Arlong, will that bring back your village? No, it won't. By all rights, kill him. I'll beat the shit out of him and you can do it yourself. Do what you think is right and I won't think any less of you. Just try to find another goal in life."

"What?!"

"You're obsessed with killing this guy! What happens when he's dead?"

"My family will be avenged."

Ichigo sighed and turned to leave. "You know what I mean." Yamada did know what he meant. "Think about what I said, I'll see you in the morning." Ichigo passed through the door leading inside.

Yamada decided to stay outside and look at the sea for a while, that and think.

XXXXXXXXXX

"YOSH!" roared Rukia as she gave the group her pep talk. "WE ARE NOW DOCKED AT THE ISLAND!"

"STOP TELLING THE AUDIENCE POINTLESS INFO!"

"SHUT UP STRAWBERRY! You know the attack plan?!"

"For the sake of the non-existent audience, please explain it again." Asked Orihime shamelessly.

"Okay then, first we sail in by blowing up the sea gate leading into Arlong Park. Step two: Get off the ship and kill Arlong."

"Any other steps?" asked Yamada.

"Well, we do have to get back on the ship and leave."

"Anything else?"

"Nope... not really."

"Hardly the most sophisticated plan." butted in Ichigo.

"Shut up Mr 'Lets just blow up everything within blowing up distance'."

"It sounded fun." Agreed Chad.

"Why is everyone here so violent?"

"Quiet Uryu, being violent is fun!" said Orihime sharply.

"YOSH!" roared Rukia "SAIL IN!"

"YES MA'AM!" roared the rest of the crew sarcastically as they steered the ship towards the gate leading into the inner area of Arlong Park.

"HOLY SHIT!" Roared Yamada as he pointed at what looked like a giant swimming cow. "IS THAT A GIANT SWIMMING COW?!"

"It could be a confused giant swimming Zebra." Pointed out Orihime.

"Your opinion hardly counts." stated Rukia, still barking out orders.

As they got closer, Ichigo saw a large crowd gathered outside the main door to Arlong Park. Many people had pitchforks and crude weapons, so Ichigo could assume they were a mob. There was also a very large gap in the wall, as if a Rhino ran through it.

"Think there's a witch hunt?" Asked Uryu.

"Burn the witch!" roared Chad.

"Technically, I'm a witch because I cast spells." remarked Rukia casually.

"EXACTLY! BURN THE WITCH."

"Need her to navigate."

"BURN THE WITCH... LATER!"

The Midnight Cutter neared the sea door so Rukia gave Chad the order to blast it out of the way. Chad summoned his basic black armour onto his right arm and performed one of his signature attacks.

"EL DIRECTO!" Chad's fist slammed forwards and fired a blast of spiritual energy at the door. The single attack eradicated the door completely, leaving a clear path for the ship to sail into the large swimming pool which inhabited Arlong Park.

As Chad concentrated on ensuring the ship sailed through the hole in the wall left by the door, Yamada gripped the ship's frontal railings with vigour.

"Soon." He thought. _"Soon that bastard will pay."_ Yamada looked to Ichigo and saw him gripping his Zanpakuto in readiness._ "I agree that I am better than Arlong, that I should not lower myself to his level. That WON'T stop me from killing him though. He will die by my hand today, regardless of the consequences."_

Ichigo noted Yamada's tension and decided to keep an eye on him in the fight. Ichigo saw two definite groups of people in Arlong Park already. On one side, there were the Fishmen. Ichigo saw maybe 15 or 20 pale skinned humanoids (some of them knocked out on the floor) with odd fish like traits, including scales, gills and skin colour. The largest was currently smashed into one of the walls, leaving a small hole in the wall behind him. The second group were some humans. As the ship sailed closer, Ichigo saw that there was: a lean blonde man in the garments of a waiter with a single swirl shaped eyebrow, a confident man with green hair, wearing a simple cotton shirt, with a single sword strapped to his side, a meek dark haired teenager wearing brown leather armour with goggles on and the apparent leader, a skinny man with shaggy black hair wearing a red vest.

As the Midnight Cutter stopped, both parties watched with interest as Uryu, Ichigo, Rukia and Yamada left the ship confidently. With a small thud, each of the group landed on the grey concrete. All of them appeared calm except for Yamada, who was shaking uncontrollably.

"HEY!" Roared one pale faced Fishman as he approached, sword drawn, to get answers that everyone wanted. "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?"

"Your death." was Yamada's reply. "Mugen Sutachu: Konkurito Ken." **(Infinite Statue: Concrete Fist)** Yamada's left fist coated itself in stone until it resembled a large boxing glove rendered eternally in rock form. With apparent ease Yamada darted forwards and punched the nameless Fishman in the chest, throwing him backwards with a large thud. "ARLONG! I'm here to kill you, you racist son of a bitch!"

"Yeah," agreed Ichigo as he walked forwards to join Yamada "We're here to beat the crap out of you."

"Oh?" questioned Arlong with amusement. "More puny humans. PIRATES!" roared Arlong to the human party of four. "Did you bring in more allies?"

"NO!" Roared the leader in anger. "I was gonna kick your ass! I don't need any help!"

"Brave words, makes no difference anyway. None of you will survive."

"Like you can challenge the great Arlong!" stated a pink octopus Fishman. "THIS will be enough!" he then blew on his own mouth like a trumpet. A large rumbling sound could be heard.

"What the hell was that?" asked Ichigo.

"Wha... wha... what's going on?!" yelled the sniper in the leather armour.

"Yahahahaha!" called out the octopus. "You can be his next meal! Come out Mohmoo!"

From Outside Arlong Park, the sea began to swell and expand as a large creature rose from the sea.

"Damn." remarked Chad as he threw the anchor over board to prevent their ship form moving. He and Orihime had been assigned to protect the ship from attacks while the rest of the group invaded.

"IT'S A MONSTER! That monster from the Grand Line that crushed Gosa Village!" roared the cowardly sniper.

"Stop complaining." said Ichigo.

"SH-SHUT UP STRAWBERRY!"

"... Do you want a punch?"

"No."

"Then shut up!"

"NO ONE TELLS COWARD TO SHUT UP EXCEPT ME!" roared the leader of the human group. His fist shot forwards like a pistol, surprising Ichigo. The orange head's experience in hand to hand combat allowed him to dodge the attack, grab the attacking arm, pull sharply, allow the flexible idiot to be pulled towards him and then kick him in the face.

"LUFFY!" yelled the blonde waiter. Luffy jumped back and rubbed his face.

"Oww! That hurt!" he complained.

"Suck it up." said Ichigo sharply. "We have bigger problems."

The gigantic sea monster had now revealed itself. The large sea cow Mohmoo was now staring down the ship which was in its way.

"MOHMOO! DESTROY THE SHIP AND ATTACK OUR ENEMIES!"

"MOOOO!" yelled Mohmoo as he lowered his head to charge at the ship with his horns.

"Not gonna work," remarked Ichigo.

"EL DIRECTO!" roared Chad as he fired his attack at Mohmoo, sending the monster flying back out of the water and making it impact with the sea sharply. Large burn marks covered Mohmoo's torso.

"MOHMOO!" called out the octopus. "ARE YOU OKAY?!"

"MMOOOOOO!" called out the monster weakly.

"YOU BASTARDS! You hurt Mohmoo!"

"That is the point of the fight." said Ichigo.

"WOOOOWWWW! AWESOME!" called out Luffy with sparkles in his eyes. "TEACH ME TOO FIRE LASERS!"

"No." said Chad simply as he gave him his good guy pose.

"ENOUGH!" roared Yamada. "WE NEED TO KILL THAT BASTARD!"

"Shahahahahaha!" laughed Arlong as he stood up, showing off his muscular body. Ichigo noticed that his pale blue skin failed to mask his muscles and that the black lightning patterned yellow shirt was designed to emphasise it. He had a large saw shaped nose and wore a brown ushanka on his head. His blue eyes glowed with menace.

"SHUT UP!" called out Yamada as rock from his arm coated his entire left arm in makeshift armour. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU ARLONG!"

"Where have I seen you before?" questioned Arlong darkly. "I remember you from somewhere. Can't quite picture it." Arlong grinned like a shark and shook his head slowly. "Can't be important."

"DAMN IT YOU BASTARD!" Yamada rushed forwards at Arlong.

"SHAHAHAHAHA!" he continued to laugh. "It's you isn't it puny human! I remember you from seven years ago!"

"GOD DAMN IT!" Called out Ichigo.

"MUGEN SUTACHU: ISHI RASSHU!" **(I********nfinite Statue: Stone Rush****) **Yamada struck with the strength of a mountain at Arlong. A nameless Fishman jumped in front of Arlong to protect his Captain. As Yamada's fist struck the Fishman, the rock coating his fist shot out like cannon, stripping his arm of the stone covering. The fired rock was blasted out in a wave and destroyed the Fishman's inner bones as he was slammed backwards into the wall. He was left as a body under a pile of rocks, he stopped twitching after a few moments. No one went to check to see if he was alive.

"Take me seriously damn it!" roared Yamada.

"Oh yes." said Arlong as he snapped his fingers, as if he suddenly remembered that he had a fiver in his back pocket "Didn't I destroy your village seven years ago and fatally wound you? You haven't aged a day, nor have you gotten stronger."

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Yamada ran in for a second attack. Ichigo prepared to interfere when he heard the call of:

"GOMU GOMU NO PISTOL!" Luffy's hand shot forwards and smashed into Yamada, sending him flying. "I'M GONNA KICK HIS ASS! YOU STAY OUT OF THIS!"

"OHH! How amusing!" grinned Arlong "The puny humans are fighting amongst themselves."

"SHUT UP!" grumbled Yamada as he got up. "I HAVE TO KICK HIS ASS!"

"HE MADE MY NAVIGATOR CRY!"

"HE KILLED MY FAMILY!" roared the devil fruit eater. "I have waited SEVEN years to kill this bastard!"

"I DON'T CAR-"

"SHUT UP!" called out Ichigo as he flared his spiritual pressure, knocking out a bunch of Fishmen. "We are getting nowhere like this. You there," Ichigo pointed at Luffy "Stop being stubborn. Yamada had his family killed by this guy. Your reason is a lot weaker than his. I ALSO want to make that bastard suffer for killing women and children."

"They are only puny humans!" protested Arlong tensely, the Fishman had experienced Haki previously and had no wish to obtain another burst from the orange head. "Who cares if they were women an-"

"SHUT UP!" yelled Ichigo. There was quiet amongst the three factions for a while. The only thing which was stopping Yamada from charging in again was the reassuring hand of Uryu on his shoulder.

"How about a compromise?" suggested Rukia as she walked towards Luffy confidently. Luffy's swordsman looked on suspiciously. "We both have a common enemy, a similar goal. I recommend that we work together to defeat Arlong."

"What's in it for us?" asked the chef as he smoked a cigarette. "Why shouldn't we kick your ass too?"

"Because we would win." pointed out Uryu. "Every single member of our crew is strong enough to single handedly defeat everyone here if they went all out. We only choose not to. Believe me when I say you don't want US as your enemies."

"I doubt it." said the green haired swordsman confidently.

Rukia motioned to Uryu. "Demonstration please."

"Right," Uryu raised his bow to the air an said softly as blue light gathered at his shoulder and streamed towards his bow "Licht Regen." **(********Light Rain****)** Uryu fired a barrage of blue energy arrows into the sky. The sheer amount of arrows were so many that for a single moment the sky above was blocked.

"CCOOOOLL!" roared Luffy as one of his companions was crying into the ground about how doomed they were. What they didn't realise was that Uryu could not consistently produce attacks like that. An attack of that scale needed a lot of Reshi to produce and the Quincy doubted he could fire more than two more shots like that.

"If you think that was good," he said. "You should see our Captain." Uryu gestured at Ichigo. "So overpowered that it hurts."

"The opponent." clarified Ichigo. "So overpowered it hurts the OPPONENT... not ME of course."

"Why do you feel the need to point that out?"

"..."

"..."

"Shut up Ishida."

"Yes Captain."

"SHAHAHAHAHA!" laughed Arlong "THAT ATTACK CAN'T BE REAL! IT MUST HAVE BEEN AN ILLUSION...OR LIGHT! YEAH! No one can fire something that large off, not even a Fishman! It must have been a large light that was supposed to scare me. Scare ME!" Arlong slammed his hand into the wall next to him, cracking it. "I am _not_ a patient person... finish your argument or I'll just attack you now."

"Fine then," said Rukia "Will you team up with us?"

Luffy pondered it for a moment. "FINE! But I get to kick Arlong's ass!"

"No deal!" yelled Yamada. "I HAVE to kill him!"

"I need to keep an eye on him too!" stated Ichigo.

"Fine!" exclaimed Rukia "You THREE can fight him. Deal?"

"YOSH!" screamed Luffy with enthusiasm. "Don't drag me down Orange, Rocky!"

"We should say the same thing Stretchy." responded Ichigo. The three sort of allied fighters marched up to Arlong together with the sole intention to beat the shit out of the racist.

"SHIT!" thought Arlong. "Even with me being a superior species, the odds aren't good. That orange weakling used Haki and that stone user was tough to beat last time. That newcomer also had a strong punch. I am sure that I could beat one of them... not THREE!"

"STOP THEM!" roared Arlong.

"YAARRGGHHH!" the low ranked members of the crew flocked forwards to try and overwhelm the trio.

"Not so fast! Sokatsui!" yelled Rukia. The low rank fire kido shot from her palm and struck down the first wave of Fishmen.

The swordsman joined in, cutting up some Fishmen who strayed too near his Captain.

"Damn... I'm no good at one sword techniques." he remarked as he cut another one down.

"Sure," said Rukia as she rolled her eyes. "Byakurai!" the electrical Kido struck a single Fishman before piercing through to strike the two behind him.

"I see you have sword." remarked the green haired man.

"Yes, I am proficient with a sword."

"Why not use it then?"

"They are not worthy to fight Sode No Shirayuku."

"That the name of your katana?"

"Yes, it is."

"What's your name women?"

"Shut it greenie, it's Rukia."

"I'm Zoro."

"Never asked for your name."

"Be like that midget."

"I AM NOT SMALL!"

Meanwhile, Arlong was starting to panic again. "CHEW! Stop them!"

A muscular Fishman in a blue vest, who had thick lips, walked forwards and said, "Mizudeppo!" (**Water Gun**) He spat out a blast of water in Ichigo's direction. The Shinigami held up his hand and blocked it one handed by coating his hand in Reiryoku.

"Weak." responded Ichigo.

"YEAH! YOU SUCK!" called out the coward in Luffy's crew.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!"

"YOU SUCK!" the idiot began to make silly faces at the Fishman.

"I'll wipe that look off your face!"

"NO NO NO!" protested the coward. "WHY DON'T YOU FIGHT ZORO INSTEAD?!"

"I'm busy."

"NOOO! SANJI! SANJI! SAVE ME!"

"You're on your own."

"... Hate you all... so much. YARRRRGGHHHH!" he then ran off through a hole in the wall, with Chew following.

"Never mind," began Arlong "Chew was weak. KUROOBI!"

"Yes Captain!"

"Kill these puny humans."

"But... but sir! I may be a level 40 in Fishman karate but I am still not strong enough to fight those monsters!"

"DO IT!"

"Not so fast." said the blonde haired man. "I'll fight you... for hurting a lady so."

"A 'lady'? You came all the way here for that sort of a women?"

"'That sort of women' huh?" the chef took out the cigarette from his moth and dropped it onto the floor,before crushing it with the heel of his shoe. "Say that again and I'll cook you in a butter covered frying pan."

"You look like you can fight, but one with such chivalry can only be mediocre."

"Say that again why don't you? We'll see who is the mediocre one."

"Let us begin!" Kuroobi settled into his fighting stance, as did Sanji.

"I shall be your back up." remarked Uryu as he casually joined Sanji's side.

"I need no help from a pencil like you."

"COUGH COUGH! GIANT LASER ARROWS! COUGH COUGH!"

"... maybe it would be good to have some back up. Stay out of my way!"

"Got it swirly."

"You are so dead after this."

Arlong gritted his teeth. "HACHI!"

The pink octopus stomped up saying, "Yes, boss?"

"Fight them! They are unworthy of my time!"

"GOT IT!" the octopus drew his six cutlasses and held them menacingly. "Give up now, I am the second strongest sword fighter in the whole of Fishman Island!"

"Big claim." remarked Zoro as he finished off the last of the cannon fodder. "I'll fight you then to bring me closer to my goal."

"Then I shall assist." stated Rukia, finally drawing her Zanpakuto. "I suppose I could do with a work out."

"Go away, sword fights are one on one."

"Like I care."

"Fine... don't get in my way and leave me to deal with it."

Arlong now had no meat bags between him and the three pissed off males. The racist Fishman felt liquid on his face, he brushed it away to reveal that he was sweating. All Arlong knew was that this was NOT his lucky day.

"Hmmm." said Arlong gruffly, trying to show a false air of swagger. "Looks like I must join the battle to deal with these weakling humans."

Arlong strode forwards to meet the trio. He knew it would be hard, but he had a reputation to keep up.

"Going to fight then, bastard?" stated Yamada, a grin on his face. "I'll start then."

"OY! ROCKY!" complained Luffy. "I want to beat him up first!"

Ichigo sighed, cursing his luck at having such an idiot as a fighting partner. Then again, it was similar to how he had gone up against Byakuya for Rukia's sake, except the Strawhat was doing it for his navigator. "How about Yamada punches him in the face, then you, then me?"

"FINE!"

"I guess," Yamada cocked back his right fist, then struck forwards as he called out "Mugen Sutachu: Gagoiru Kukoyoseki Tsume!" **(********Infinite Statue: Gargoyles Obsidian Claw****)**

From Yamada's middle finger, black rock slowly started to coat his entire fist and wrist area. Unlike previous constructs the Devil Fruit eater had shown, this rock coating was flexible and not rigid like a statue. The obsidian black coloured rock reflected light slightly, highlighting the sharp talon that he now controlled.

"This," he said pointing at his hand "is one of my greatest techniques. Normally my powers are literally set in stone, but through experimentation I discovered that I could create different types of rock to use, though not as much as my weaker techniques." In a burst of speed Yamada disappeared, before appearing behind Arlong. "Now die."

Yamada swung at Arlong's unprotected back, landing a clean blow with his clawed hand and sending the Fishman flying forwards.

Luffy did not waste the chance and cocked back his fist. "GOMU GOMU NO GATLING!" with sudden speed and power Luffy sent his fist forwards again and again in quick succession, giving Yamada the impression that he had suddenly gained extra arms as he continually pounded Arlong, who having been knocked off guard by Yamada, was unable to block. Ichigo knew better though, with his experience moving at high speeds he could see that Luffy was just punching so fast he appeared to have multiple limbs. Whatever his power was, Ichigo silently mused, it was very odd.

Luffy finished his attack and began to pant, while Arlong had been thrown back again. Yamada prepared to strike the temporarily downed foe when Ichigo reminded him that it was his turn now.

Arlong got back to his feet and laughed. "Shahahahahaha! Shahahahaha! That actually hurt! I don't remember you using that attack in our fight!"

"You cut off my right arm before I could you bastard!" roared Yamada.

"YAMADA!" reminded Ichigo. "Next attack's mine!"

"Oh," questioned Arlong. "The swordsman wants to have a go? First lets see him survive one of my attacks. Shark on darts!"

Arlong shot forwards like a torpedo, using his nose to cut through the air like butter, at speeds far faster than most humans. Luckily, Ichigo was not like most humans. He was a Captain class Shinigami with the experience of participating in two deadly wars.

As such, Ichigo effortless used Zangetsu to block the attack, much to the Fishman's surprise. "Weak..." muttered Ichigo. With a single slash of his sword, Ichigo countered with a strike to the nose. Arlong's famous unbreakable nose... broke. Much like a cabinet from Ikea.

"ARRGGHHHHH!" roared Arlong in pain as he retreated a few steps. "MY NOSE!"

"I _knows_." joked Ichigo. "Get it, nose... knows?" Ichigo could hear the sound of crickets chirping in the background.

"NOT FUNNY!" called Rukia as she dodged an attack dealt by Hachi the swordsman.

"ENOUGH!" roared Yamada, charging at Arlong once again. He lashed out with several powerful swings. Arlong, still in pain from the loss of one of his sharpest aids in battle, managed to block the blows an counter with one of his own. Yamada shrugged off the full powered punch and attempted to strike again when-

"GOMU GOMU NO PISTOL!" Luffy struck Arlong instead, bruising Arlong and gaining the Fishman's attention. "I WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE THE NEXT ATTACK!"

Ichigo sighed, "Trust him to care about the turn order."

"Fine, screw the turn order, lets kick his ass."

"HELL YEAH! GOMU GOMU NO PISTOL!" Luffy fired his signature punch as powerful as a pistol shot.

"Mugen Sutachu: Konkurito Ken!" Yamada coated his left arm on rock again and rushed forwards while Ichigo shunpoed in to try and cut the Fishman with his oversized weapon.

The result was overkill. The combined force of the attacks sent Arlong flying into Arlong Park's upper rooms.

"ARLONG!" called out Hachi from the floor, having just been defeated by the efforts of Rukia and her green haired ally.

"I told you not to help me!"

"Shut it Zoro! Not my fault you use three sword style... with one sword."

"Not my fault my swords broke."

Rukia took on a false air of benevolence. "Alas, seeing my companion in danger I had no choice but to save him from his cruel fate."

"Unneeded," responded Zoro with his signature stare. "I could have borrowed those two idiots swords and ended this in moments."

"HEY!" yelled the two idiots.

"You were injured as well."

"Who gives a flying fuck?"

"Indeed."

"He was weak anyway."

"Says the dude who couldn't even beat him."

"Piss off, I told you, I'm no good at one sword." Rukia stuck a tongue out in response. The Lieutenant noticed that Zoro and Ichigo had many similar traits, arguing with the marimo swordsman was just as fun as doing it with Ichigo.

"You're not bad with a sword though... when you use it."

"I am pretty good." smirked Rukia with false modesty.

"Your captain seems tough too, I may have to challenge him later."

"We may have over done it!" remarked Ichigo as he stared at the form of Arlong struggling to rise."

"Who gives a flying fuck? Kill the bastard."

"... Indeed."

Luffy growled, "I wanted to punch him into that building!"

"You did!"

"IT'S NOT THE SAME IF YOU DO IT TOO!" he pouted in jealousy.

Arlong rose with difficulty, finding himself in the map room he kept Nami in as a child. The Fishman was really regretting starting this fight. First, the seven year dead human did some serious damage to his back. Then the swordsman cut off his nose, a feat no one had EVER done before or even came close too, with apparent ease. To top it off, the rubber boy managed to do this much impact damage, even with others to help him. Looked like Arlong was going to have to use that.

"Think he's done?" commented Ichigo.

"Nah." responded Yamada. "If he is, then I will just beat the shit out of him anyway. This is my stress relief this is."

"GET UP YOU BASTARD!" roared Luffy.

_"You know things are bad for the world when the hyperactive knuckle head who has no need to beat up someone acts more annoyed and manic than the dude who has been subconsciously planning to kill the target for seven years."_ thought Ichigo.

"NO! ARLONG WOULD NEVER LOOSE!" called out Kuroobi, as equally battered and bruised as Hachi.

"Shut it you soon to be sushi!" stated Sanji, giving his downed enemy another kick to the head.

"I thought you were in trouble when he forced the fight underwater." said Uryu calmly as he polished his glasses and smoothed down his suit.

"I nearly was," agreed Sanji as he finished smoking his cigarette. "When he pulled me under things seemed bad. I guess it wasn't such a bad thing having you team up with me."

Uryu for the most part had stayed out of the way of the two combatants fight. The chef clearly had a bone to pick and the Quincy knew the need to fight ones own battles due to ideology or pride. He briefly remembered when he was forced to fight against Ichigo in the Vandenreich war due to his Quincy pride and the need to become stronger. After his loss, Uryu had swallowed his pride by joining the Shinigami to help Ichigo, so as to pay back his debt to a friend because his life had been spared. Consequently, Uryu knew when one had to swallow their pride and ask for help.

"If you hadn't pinned him with some weak shots so I could get to the surface, I might have drowned."

"It was hardly much."

"DEATH TO ARLONG'S ENEMIES!"

"SHUT UP!" roared Sanji as he kicked the downed foe again. Uryu found this immature but found himself joining in anyway with the kicking anyway.

"I really am becoming as violent as the rest... god help me." thought Uryu as he kicked the Fishman in the balls.

Arlong finally pulled himself free of the rubble and leapt down to the floor, wielding a sword nearly as unwieldy as Ichigo's... which was saying something. It was a large strip of thin metal with large triangle shaped blades attached to it along one side.

"THIS IS MY BLADE KIRIBACH! DIE NOW PUNY HUMANS!"

"ARRLOOONNNGGG!" called out a female voice in anger. Various civilians mumbled in awe as civilians do, while a petite young women with orange hair, brown piercing eyes and moderate curves and assets. "I'M HERE TO KILL YOU!" the women prepared to continue when she saw the current circumstances. Meanwhile, in the background, Usopp returned from his own fight and hid in the corner out of screenshot.

"Join the queue." commented Ichigo with a shrug. "My good unhinged friend Yamada here wants to kill him, that Strawhat over there wants to kill him... or at least nearly kill him, I want to kill AND castrate him, the various villagers here want to kill him. I'm pretty sure everyone wants a piece of him."

"NAMI!" roared Arlong in an unhinged manner. "SO YOU BETRAY ME AS WELL?!"

Normally in a situation like this the proud Fishman would have perhaps mocked Nami, or drawn things out by giving her the chance to return, or maybe even talked to her affectionately. This was not a normal event though. The Captain of the Arlong Pirates had already been humiliated by how easily the trio of fighters had managed to hurt him so. Arlong, instead of showing his normal calm and almost regal self, descended into pure blood fury and charged at Nami, preventing the navigator from being able to roar her convictions.

"NAMI!" called out Luffy and her crew members. Sanji rushed to reach her but the sword wielding was too fast and the cook to slow. He already knew he wasn't going to make it.

Nami shut her eyes in defiance and prepared for her bloody end, disappointed that she was never going to get her chance to sail with Luffy again when-

SWOOSH! With a quick burst of shunpo, Ichigo flashed in front of the stranger, his protective instincts kicking in despite not even knowing who she was.

"ICHIGO!" called out Orihime from the ship.

CLASH! Kiribachi was blocked by Zangetsu easily. With a small burst of power, the substitute forced the still berserk Fishman back.

"Hey Arlong! Your fight is with ME!"

"YOU PUNY HUMAN! THINGS WERE GOING WELL UNTIL YOU SHOWED UP!"

"SHUT UP!" yelled Luffy as he hit Arlong with a Gomu Gomu No Buchi (**Gum Gum Whip**) "YOU TRIED TO HURT NAMI!"

"L-Luffy!" said Nami in shock, still looking at her two rescuers. When she stormed over to Arlong Park she did it to try and offer Luffy support while he tried to free her village from its burden. She did not expect to see all these new combatants. That orange haired one gave off a certain vibe that he was at least as strong as her own captain.

"You okay?" asked Ichigo while Yamada got some needed stress relief fighting against the berserk Arlong while he tried to slash the Fruit Eater with his sword and Luffy went overboard with his Gomu Gomu No Pistol.

"Wh-who are you?!" she stuttered indignantly.

"The names Ichigo, just here to kick _that_ fish's ass." and with that, Ichigo turned, ready to end the fight when Arlong was finished off for good with a well placed combo attack of Gagoiru Kukoyoseki Tsume and Gomu Gomu No Bullet. Arlong coughed up blood as he was slammed backwards into Arlong Park... again.

"NO!" roared Arlong "I REFUSE TO LOOSE!"

"SHUT UP YOU BASTARD!" screamed Yamada as he ran up to his village's tormentor and kicked him with a stone enhanced kick to the face, again and again and again.

"SHUT UP!" he cried as tears began to dribble down his face. "I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK YOU BASTARD!" another kick to the stomach this time, earning the Gargoyle Man a cry of pain from the self proclaimed strongest Fishman. "NOT _ONE_ SHRED OF REMORSE! Not ONE!" Kick. Ichigo began to walk towards his newest friend, eager to stop him going to far in his own cruelty.

Uryu and Chad opted to stand at the side and watch events play out, Rukia simply stared, Orihime turned her back to the violence considering she was still the sweet girl who had not a violent bone in her body.

"BASTARD! YOU KILLED THEM IN COLD BLOOD! NOT EVEN A FUNERAL!" a final kick shattered the Fishman's teeth yet again. The Strawhat's gathered together in silence and looked at the pure emotion coming from Yamada. Even Luffy and Nami had no stomach to see the bloody mangled body of Arlong. "BASTARD... YOU _DESERVE_ DEATH!"

Ichigo placed a hand on Yamada's back. "Yamada, enough... its over... he's lost." Yamada looked down at his feet and at Arlong in hate, taking enjoyment in seeing the cruel racist in such a bad state.

"Fine." Yamada remembered Ichigo's tale of Aizen, remembered the advice the Shinigami had given, remembered that he didn't want his new friends to think badly of him and stopped his physical assault for good, turning his back on the disgraced leader of Arlong Park for good. "Its over now... just remember Arlong, I _could_ have killed you. I _should_ have killed you... but I haven't and that is because I am a human... and I am better than you."

That speech symbolised the end of the battle of Arlong Park.

That speech meant that the 20 remaining villages under Arlong's control were now free.

That speech meant Nami's burden was finally lifted.

That speech meant that Yamada's revenge was now satisfied, that for now he was content to allow Arlong to live.

That speech meant that Yamada was ready to join Ichigo Kurosaki's group.

******AN- Finally finished... longest chapter ever written for this story... HELL YEAH!**

******I want to know what you all honestly think of Yamada. I added him on a whim because I couldn't think of a canon character who could become Ichigo's chef.**

******He will be the only OC crew member though. (May have OC villains because Ichigo will be having some separate adventures and stuff)**

******If no one likes Yamada, I can kill him off at the earliest convenience and add his character to my newest OP story.**

******Anyway, thanks for reading this far. All reviews have been amazingly helpful and appreciated. As such... please rate and review... more. Review + me =happy. Happy + Me= Faster update speed.**

******Until next time, ********Undying Soul out.**


	6. Chapter 6: The Chef Hesitatingly Joins

**Chapter Six**

**AN- Hello all, its me, Undying Soul, here with your annual beach crossover helpings! **

**Saviour this chapter because it was nearly delayed a week due to certain circumstances, that and the website acting up last night, add it to beta issues... really dismotivates you.**

**Either way, if this chapter is a bit shitty punctuation wise its because I refrained from getting a beta for it in favour of bringing it out now.**

**Disclaimer: Oda and Kubo are god! YES! WE KNOW! STOP RUBBING IT IN OUR FACES YOU SHITTY LAWYERS!**

**Beta: this chapter, none. Back to normal next time though.**

Three days after the defeat of Arlong Yamada still had a mixed opinion on the outcome. Admittedly it had been fun to get some much needed stress relief by beating the crap out of the racist bastard. On the other hand, the fruit eater still believed that Arlong had deserved to die. It was a good outcome though, things could have turned out worse. Yamada was content that he even got the chance to wail on the Fishman. Had anyone apart from Ichigo's crew found him, he would have bled to death from the missing arm he obtained from Hachi.

Yamada realised that he owed Ichigo and his friends a lot, both for the transport, the moral support, the healing and the general help provided. This was what led Yamada to deciding to join Ichigo's unnamed crew once the party to celebrate Arlong's defeat was over.

"_Then again," _thought Yamada _"Do I really want to join any crew after the behaviour I've seen during the last three days? Seriously. Over the last three days only two things have happened. One, everyone got amazingly pissed. The second, everyone did amazingly stupid things once they were amazingly pissed."  
_

If anything, Yamada was the only one _not_ to get pissed at the party thrown to celebrate the fall of Arlong Park, having decided that savouring the taste of revenge should be done while not throwing up into a bucket. Yamada had started to wish that he had gotten drunk considering he was the only odd one out.

The Strawhat crew hat gotten drunk, the villagers had gotten drunk, those two bounty hunters had gotten drunk and Team Ichigo had gotten drunk.

Starting with the crew led by the idiot with the straw hat, these were the various acts of stupidity that Yamada had analysed in his increasingly sober state. Luffy had eaten out half the town, guzzling enough meat to starve even Alabasta itself had there royal family had the _pleasure_ to host this party, Usopp (The coward who Yamada had vaguely recalled running away screaming like a little girl when his fight began) had spent his time singing self created songs explaining his own self importance in the Arlong Park fights as well as accepting the attention of the various foolish girls who had believed him... followed by a range of attacks from said girls when they realised he was lying which slotted him into a semi comatose state, Zoro had drunk enough booze to fill a few large bathtubs (Keeping in with character) and Sanji had tried the various foods of the Cocoyasi Village chefs gotten drunk then went back to see them tell them very loudly to their faces how bad their food was compared to his own.

Yamada saw all this and smiled in amusement. When he saw his own crew all he could do however, was facepalm.

Ishida had decided to drink with Nami's sister for a while but was an extreme lightweight and as such fell unconscious after the first drink... the problem was that he was clingy... _very_ clingy while drunk. Nojiko had been unable to remove his body from her left leg for nearly two days.

That was nearly as frustrating as how Ichigo had gotten extremely drunk and decided to have a drink off against Zoro (Using his Shinigami body to cheat due to having a more powerful metabolism) which only caused even more of a liquor shortage for all of the sane villagers in need of a serious drink after being unable to get properly pissed for nearly seven years.

Admittedly Orihime's antics were simply adorable, (After five large whiskey's she ended up believing that a potted plant was Ichigo and due to the alcohol lowering her inhibitions, she tried to chat up said potted plant... an failed spectacularly) but Chad and Rukia's was definitely _not_.

Chad had set up his own series of arm wrestling matches and made a killing from charging people for the chance to defeat a giant at arm wrestling. Chad later fell asleep after his 77th victory and had his earnings stolen by a pissed Rukia who had acted as the referee. (Curiously, Nami later stole the money from Rukia, having sensed a major profit even while pissed as an elephant)

Getting back on topic, Yamada was seriously reconsidering signing up for Team Ichigo... not exactly _reconsider_ but it did make him take a second look at whether he was stupid enough to stock the Midnight Cutter with alcohol later on when he was official chef. His reconsideration led to the confirmation that only an idiot would give someone as powerful as Ichigo liquor.

Seriously... after Arlong had his ass kicked, Ichigo had volunteered to level Arlong Park for everyone using his first release. Having seen the finished results afterwards (A flat expanse of land with barely a brick left undestroyed) Yamada was grateful that Ichigo had been on their side. It did piss off Yamada that Ichigo had been holding back for the entire fight against Arlong. Then again, it was a bit hypocritical considering Yamada had not gone all out either.

The moral of this story was to not piss off Ichigo... mass property damage would only ensue.

XXXXXXXXXX

The next day, Ichigo woke up with a raging headache, a symptom of his newly obtained hangover.

"What the hell happened last night?" questioned the substitute out loud.

"You got laid." responded a familiar voice. Ichigo noted that it was Yamada.

"Owwww!" complained Ichigo from his lumpy mattress on the floor. As he struggled to rise he saw everyone else also sprawled on equally lumpy mattress'. They were in a large room with wide open windows that let in lots of beautiful morning sunshine. Ichigo hated the sun so much at that moment in time. "Seriously... what happened?"

"I told you... you totally got laid." stated Yamada with an even tone in his voice, as he laid on his own makeshift bed.

It took a few moments for Ichigo's hungover state to comprehend those words. "Wait... WHAT!" Uryu snapped awake at this point due to the loud noise, rolled off the mattress and fell asleep again on the floor. "What do you mean I got laid? With who!?"

"Orihime obviously... you did it in public and everything... your never gonna live this one down."

Ichigo went bright red at the supposed revelation, particularly on his nose and ears. "SERIOUSLY?!"

"No... I just wanted to see how you would react if I said you did."

"So I _didn't_ have sex with Orihime?"

Yamada replied eventually. "No... you're really disappointed now, aren't you?" Ichigo didn't reply although the bright red in his face remained.

"How drunk did I get?" asked Ichigo reluctantly.

"REALLY drunk. You finished off four barrels over the course of the last three days. It takes real talent to remain drunk for up to three days at a time."

This surprised the substitute, who normally refrained from drinking any alcohol as a rule in order to set a good example for his sisters and honestly had no idea how he got so hammered without his self control kicking in and stopping his booze session early.

"No more drinking for me." said Ichigo as he scolded himself.

"Anyway," began Yamada as he sat up. "I have decided to join your crew as an official member."

"Great, that's awesome. Nice to have you."

"... That's it?"

"Yep."

"Seriously... you forcibly tried to tie me up in a closet and try to gag me in order to recruit me. _Then_ I willingly offer my services and you act like that?"

"...Pretty much."

"A bit disappointing really."

"Look... I have a god damn hangover right now. You could be telling me I'm the new leader of the World Government and I still wouldn't react with surprise." Ichigo sighed loudly while he rubbed his unstyled hair, which was loosing its spikiness. "Right now I wouldn't give a crap unless this room was burning down... scratch that, let me suffer in peace even IF I burn in the process."

"...That's it."

"Yep. Welcome to the crew. Expect our sincere gratitude at your joining of our group at dinner... god knows we'll be pleased to have something Orihime didn't make."

"Morning everyone!" said Orihime cheerfully, causing Ichigo's ear to tremble. "I heard my name, anything up?"

"No." stated Ichigo. "All I care about is how you do NOT have a hangover."

"Hmmm," puzzled Orihime. "No idea. Perhaps its my powers or something."

"Fucking hell." said Chad in his gruff voice as he woke up to the sound Of Orihime's continuous cheerfulness. "What shit did I smoke last night to make me feel like this?"

Ichigo blinked once, then twice, then a few more times for good measure. Ichigo may be a bit stupid at times but even so, hearing Chad swear was next to near non existent. Chad had recently become more violent, not more swearable. Chad and swear words never came together in the same sentence.

"Am I still drunk or something?" questioned Ichigo. "I couldn't have heard Chad of all people swear."

"Frigging hell my god damn head hurts. That booze must have been piss poor."

"Can I have what ever you've been drinking?" asked Yamada. "Despite not drinking a drop of booze I think that your drinking is somehow a contagion in the air."

"OOH!" roared Orihime cheerfully, causing Uryu to roll over in shock and wake up fully this time. "I'M A DOCTOR! I can _totally _use my magic healing powers to study this strange new phenomenon!"

"Did I just hear Orihime use a long word like phenomenon?" asked the recently woken up Quincy.

"Its been a strange morning for us all. Chad started swearing."

"... Seriously? I need what ever that giant's been smoking."

"EVERYONE SHUT THE HELL UP!" roared Rukia like a dragon waking from its slumber. With deliberate slowness, the demonic snow user got up, wreathed in evil blue flames. Everyone shut up... except for Chad.

"Shit."

"GET OUT!" Rukia fired a Shakkaho, throwing Chad through the wall. "I HAVE ONE MOTHER FUCKER OF A HANGOVER... SO BE QUIET UNTIL THE ROOM STOPS SPINNING."

"..."

"..." everyone shut up of course, only an idiot would spea-

"SHUT UP MR NARRATOR!" roared Rukia, somehow breaking the fourth wall by punching me in the face. I shut up.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Better?" asked Uryu.

"No... I need some god damn coffee."

"Yamada just agreed to join the crew." pointed out Ichigo helpfully, eager to distract Rukia.

"Good... get me some coffee and a bagel chef slave."

"Chef slave?" questioned Yamada indignantly.

"Do you want a punch to the face?"

"...No."

"Then get cooking chef slave... this lieutenant is in a bagel sort of mood." Yamada did the smart thing and ran off to get a bagel and some coffee... preferably coffee with either some tranquilliser in it or some cyanide. Both would stop the awoken dragon, so both methods were fine with Yamada.

XXXXXXXXXX

Team Ichigo left later that day with an extra team member added to the group. After lunch when everyone was significantly more clear headed and less likely to want to kill one another, it was decided that it would be best to set sail sooner rather than later. Even stopping for the party had been a bit of a risky move. _"Who knows how long Soul Society has until the World Government learns of it."_ thought a much more sober Rukia when the crew were deciding when to leave. _"We need as much reconnaissance done as soon as possible."_

As such, the group left after the Strawhats did. The group led by Luffy had left earlier in the morningwith most of the inhabitants of Cocoyasi's pocket change. This reminded Rukia off her lost money that she stole off Chad, which led to her fuming for a while afterwards.

The rest of the day passed by like normal, with Rukia reading in the library, Uryu sleeping, Chad sparring with Yamada and Ichigo training with Uryu.

"God damn it!" yelled Ichigo after he failed to materialise more than a few strands of Reshi. "Why can't I make a god damn bow!"

"Urahara still has not returned my spare equipment yet," began Uryu as he explained why Ichigo was failing for the seventh time that day. "you may also be unsuited towards summoning bows and arrows. You could have a speciality for pistols, swords, crossbows. No need to worry about that though until that shopkeeper gets off his ass."

"Why do I need this shit again!" roared Ichigo angrily.

Uryu sighed, preparing his specially made speech for dummies who like causing wide spread damage to explain this situation. "Remember your final release..."

"Yeeaaaaahhh."

"Remember how destructive it was..."

"Yeeaaaaahhh."

"Remember how powerful a Quincy Vollstandig was when used..."

"Yeeaaaaahhh."

"Imagine if you combined your final form with a Vollstandig... then fired off some super powerful energy swords everywhere. Do some stuff like Ulquiorra's super energy spear, y'know. Think of how destructive that would be."

"Veeerrrrrryyy!"

"Want to learn rubbish Quincy stuff now?"

"Hell yeah! Screw Kido training! Super powered Quincy stuff all the way!"

"Hypocrite."

"Shut it Ishida!"

XXXXXXXXXX

Over the next five days Yamada fell into an average routine as well. Up early for breakfast, use that new fangled "TEEEEE VEEEEE" thing in the morning ("Seriously, what a cool thing! You press a button and a small red light appears in the bottom right corner of it, _that_ is pretty cool!") prepare lunch, training with Chad and Ichigo, dinner, hang out with the others. Quite quickly the left over hate in the fruit eaters body faded away, leaving behind a relatively fun guy to hang around with, admittedly a fun guy to hang around with who has social issues but still. Yamada decided that being revenge driven was boring and that it was more fun not to be a self hating emo prick.

Elsewhere, Sasuke Uchiha sneezed, before returning to inwardly monologuing about how hard it was for him to have so many fan girls.

Shinji from Evangellion also sneezed inside his cockpit. He then returned to inwardly complaining about his terrible family issues and contemplated running away like a sissy.

Shinn Asuka, in a completely different dimension, suddenly experienced a sneezing fit while sitting in his own giant robot. He had the sudden urge to yell "EMO OFF!"

He ignored that urge however. In the end only Sasuke and Shinji had an emo off that day, the sissiest emo off that had _ever _occurred in the history of anime. No one won though. The writer butted in and told them that they were both equally depressing and that they should piss off because they were taking the focus of the story away from the plot and bringing it onto their own crappy egos.

Back with the plot, Rukia had a revelation for the group the next morning over breakfast.

"Wait... what?"

"You have a bounty." Rukia practically slammed a sheet of paper onto the dinner table. Everyone raised an eyebrow.

"Where did you get that?"

"I have a certain seagull sending me the occasional newspaper. Just look at the thing carrot top!"

Ichigo looked at it. It was a picture off him holding his unreleased blade in front of him, just before blowing up Arlong Park. The words at the top read **"Wanted"** whereas below the picture in bold black it read

**Dead Or Alive**

**Ichigo Kurosaki**

**$48,000,000**

**The "Spirit Cutter"**

**Relatively new pirate to the scene. Reported attempts at property damage towards a Marine base, property damage to civilian areas, assault on a Marine official, disregard to attempts at capture as well as having defeated significant foes. (Such as Arlong the Saw as well as drawing with Vice Admiral Strawberry) Reports state that he may have originated from a second Wano Country, geographical location currently unknown. Exercise caution within range of this individual. Is skilled with swords, Haki and had an unknown energy technique which levelled a large area. **

"Wow..." said Ichigo. "...that's pretty cool actually! I mean, oh no! A bounty!"

"Shut up strawberry!" roared Rukia. "We were supposed to be _subtle_ for this mission! Study the enemy and report back! That was allllll we had to do!"

"Urahara said we could do what we wanted while on this trip."

"THAT'S BESIDES THE POINT!" she groaned out loud, irritated at having a wanted man on the ship. "This brings unneeded attention to us. A fresh rookie with a 48 million bounty is a BIG thing! Not quite big enough to have the whole Military after us, but enough to bring us the attention of unneeded hunters!"

"Not really," began Yamada sheepishly. "I was a bounty hunter back in the day, a bounty doesn't mean that someone will come after you. Other factors contribute. For example, we are in East Blue right now, no idiot would be mad enough to try and take out Ichigo here... 48 is simply too high for a bounty hunter to handle end off while still in the weakest sea."

"Exactly!" agreed Ichigo.

"Won't this be null and void when we reach the Grand Line?" asked Uryu doubtfully.

"True, but it won't matter then. In Paradise any and all pirates will be captured, regardless of if they have a bounty or not. If anything, high bounties will keep other pirates from messing with you and believe me when I say that keeping the other pirates weary is more important than staying anomalous. You're doing a info gathering mission, right? Then it don't matter if you get a bounty early or not, you will get pinned one later anyway if you are some sort of representation of this new Wano Country you lot come from."

"That makes sense!" Agreed Orihime with vigour. "Having a bounty makes us all better pirates anyway!"

"Not pirates." muttered Uryu.

"Shut it Ishida,"said Ichigo reluctantly. "We have already been pinned as pirates by the Marines, nothing short of the word of god would change their minds about us."

"And said word of god would have to be pretty damn convincing at that." agreed Yamada as he nodded his head sagely. "The World Government _never_ backs down."

"Right! We may as well make it official and give ourselves a proper name and flag so that when the Marines chase after us they have a name to curse."

"We should totally be the badass pirates!" suggested Orihime.

"Nah, that sucks!" countered Ichigo.

"Yeah! Saying we're badass won't _actually _turn us into badasses!" agreed Rukia.

"What about the Protector Pirates?" was Chad's suggestion.

"Possibly," Rukia nodded her head thoughtfully. "Ichigo is a bit of a protecting nut. Then again, that might make other people think that we're all pushover's. Its false advertising if anything."

"Moon Slayers?" offered up Ichigo.

"Pretentious." retorted Chad.

"I kicked the Quincy emperor's ass along with Kyoraku and dad, I have the right to be pretentious. Hell, I can be down right blasphemous considering I kicked Aizen's ass with Mugetsu a while back, he was pretty much a god at that time."

"Heaven Strikers?"

"Still a bit pretentious... if not more so than the previous suggestion."

"Quiet Chad!" began Yamada. "I'm having a sudden burst of inspiration... perhaps we could be the Titan Pirates."

"Titan Pirates?" questioned Orihime.

"Why not? As far as I can tell we're all pretty tough in our own ways. How much tougher can you get than Titan's?"

"What about... the Reaper Pirates." offered up Rukia as she clicked her fingers to symbolise her sudden revelation.

"I can work with that." remarked Ichigo with a smirk.

"Pretentious." disagreed Chad.

"Yeah!" countered Orihime. "Not all of us are like you and Ichigo."

"Yeah, but even you Chad and Uryu deal in the same sort of issues as us." Ichigo tried to dance round the issue of Soul Society very carefully. It was decided that Yamada would learn about who they actually were eventually but for the near future it would be safer not to reveal the existence of Shinigami. "We can all pretty much guarantee that anyone who fights us will die, so why not?"

"Fine." Orihime groaned as she gave in.

"I can put up with it." conceded Chad.

"I don't get what it symbolises but Reapers are pretty cool, so hell yeah!" Yamada bumped his fists together. "Lets do this shit!"

"Totally agree on this one." agreed Rukia.

"I dislike having to be associated with a group called the "Reapers". It goes against what little pride I have left." Uryu scowled. Accepting a title like Reaper was pretty much a kick to the balls of what little Quincy pride Uryu had left. He may have abandoned his pride to stand by his friends in the Vandenreich war but that didn't mean he was just going to roll over and accept that he had been tossed out of the group calling themselves the Quincy forever, by throwing away the last of his pride over something as simple as a crew name.

Ichigo sealed the deal with a single sentence. "If you agree with us on the name, you can design the pirate flag."

"..."

"..."

"... You have a deal Kurosaki... I get full control over the design and creation of it, correct."

"Yeah, do what you want with it." Uryu Ishida ran out the room in a blur of what could only be called fashionista. He had his Quincy pride... and then he had his sewers pride. Guess what Uryu had been more proud of during the last few years?

"Reaper Pirates it is then." Ichigo smirked.

"Next stop." Rukia pulled a map out from under the table. She unrolled it and placed it on an area of wood where there was no food goods obscuring it from view. "Here!" she pointed to a single island near the south west of the map. "This place is known as the town of the beginning and the end, Loguetown!"

"Beginning and the end?" asked a curious Orihime.

"I'll explain." said Yamada. "The previous Pirate King Gol D. Roger was born here and was later executed here. This was also where the great age of pirates first started, when good old Roger challenged the world to find his treasure upon his death bed. Thus beginnings and endings, logue as in epilogue and prologue."

"Thank you for interrupting Mr Know It All." complained Rukia. "He was correct though, an important historical figure took his last breath there. Following in with the trend, we shall stock up there to begin our journey. I know that the Strawhats will be there too for a while."

"Might be nice to see those idiots again." said a smiling Yamada. "We can reminisce about good times... like punching a certain fishman in the face."

"You're nearly as violent as me now." remarked Chad.

"And I'm soon to follow... curse your bad influence on me!" Uryu ran inside as he said this, began to sob into Chad's chest in a very manly way, wiped his eyes, then ran off outside to get back to manly tasks such as sewing and fabric designing.

"Back to work guys." said Ichigo reluctantly. "If we want to get there before word on us does, we should get sailing using the Spiritual Engine and keep an eye out for trouble."

"Got it!" agreed the crew, following their captain's orders.

XXXXXXXXXX

Two days later, Ichigo excused himself from a training session with Chad because they both felt an extra spiritual presence on the ship and the captain had been nominated to deal with it. Ichigo had no idea why someone like Rukia hadn't dealt with it yet, so the substitute decided to confront the small spiritual presence himself due to the laziness of the others.

He walked to the empty upper deck and called out loud enough for anyone watching to hear. "HEY... who ever is spying on us, come on out!"

A woman walked casually over to the reaper. "Hmmmm... you found me out pretty quickly Mr Ichigo."

"I could sense you." was all Ichigo said. "Who the hell are you and what are you doing on my ship?" he scrutinised the woman. She was tall and slender, with shoulder length dark black hair which framed her piercing intelligent blue eyes. Her attire consisted off a purple cowgirl style theme, with matching boots and a hat helping to pull the look off.

"You can call me... Miss All Sunday."

"Stupid name."

"Isn't it? The boss likes theatrics though."

"We can agree on something then." Ichigo gave a slight smile before reverting back to his frequently used scowl. "What do you want? Your not here for a chat are you."

"You're right, I'm not." Miss All Sunday gave the reaper a wide smile. "A... _certain_ organisation is interested in recruiting someone of your prestige combat ability."

"Don't care." responded Ichigo. "Find someone else."

"Now now Mr Ichigo, it would annoy my leader if someone of your talent ignored his summons. Its not everyday that a complete rookie is offered 48 million for a capture you know."

"I don't care, tell your boss I refuse."

"Are you sure?" asked Ichigo. "He is VERY influential you know. Soon he will have his own country under his thumb. Think of all the assistance you could be offered as a pirate backed by a Shichibukai... declining would be a very bad move. " Ichigo briefly considered it, the Shichibukai were pretty important people or something. Then again, being a lackey never appealed to the substitute Shinigami.

"I don't need friends in high places."

"You can spend time with a woman such as myself too if you agree." she leant forwards just enough to give the bashful teen a quick glance at her noticeable assets.

"Your not my type." Ichigo turned away and blushed. _"Its like Yoruchi all over again... except she was naked and this chicks not."_

"Come on, I took care of a few CP4 agents sent after you. They could have made your day a pain."

"Yeah, but _you_ are making my day a pain!" the mysterious woman laughed.

"It appears negotiations have failed." said the agent finally.

"Exactly," agreed Ichigo. "Now get the hell of my ship."

"Very well then." Miss Sunday walked to the edge of the deck, then jumped. Ichigo noted that she landed on a carriage attached to a giant turtle smoking a cigar. He chose to ignore this new piece of madness in is life, it would only give him a migraine later on if he took notice of every messed up thing he had seen since this damn adventure had begun. "Just remember!" called the older woman. "Baroque Works has its eye on you. Let us know if you ever need a job!"

The turtle began to swim, dragging Miss All Sunday away with it.

Ichigo walked back to Chad.

"Who was it Ichigo?"

"A chick wanting me to join some sort of evil organisation."

"Think we'll ever see her again?"

"Doubt it." Ichigo settled into his average street fighting style. "Back to punching each other in the face." the two friend spent the rest of the afternoon punching each other in the face.

XXXXXXXXXX

Four days later, the Reaper Pirates received an unusual guest.

"Who the hell is that?" asked Ichigo as he pointed out to the ocean.

"You mean that guy on that crappy raft?" replied Rukia, looking at said raft in question. She noted that it had the general look of a coffin, which in itself was slightly ominous. It appeared to be sailing in the same general direction as themselves.

"Yeah... think he's in trouble."

"Even if he was in trouble, do you think he would want pirates to help him?"

"What's going on!?" asked Uryu with a yawn as he came down from his sleeping quarters. "Shouldn't you be sailing?"

"We should be." agreed Chad with a slight nod.

"Relax," said Ichigo, waving away the issue. "Yamada's on wheel right now, he'll finish dinner later."

"Kurosaki, what _is_ going on?"

"We are determining whether we should offer assistance to a random passing by raft or not."

"The choice is being taken out of our hands..." remarked Uryu "... the guys coming towards us."

Slowly the coffin raft drew nearer, bringing the man in question riding it clearer into view. With his Shinigami enhanced eyesight Ichigo could spot the man quite easily. He was standing up which revealed that he was quite tall and lean. His outfit (A red and black ornate coloured open shirt with white pants, topped off with a wide brimmed dark hat with a large plume) gave him the appearance of a Spanish swordsman. A large gold cross appeared to be on his back.

The raft/coffin drew ever closer, until it drew up alongside the ship. Chad was sent off to stop the ship for a bit.

The man looked up towards the group with eyes befitting of a hawk and spoke clearly. "I saw you staring at me... do you have a problem?" the man appeared hostile, or at least tense.

"No," responded Ichigo with a shrug. "me and my friends here just saw you and wondered if you needed assistance or something. I mean, a raft like that don't really look suited towards sailing."

"Care to repeat that?" spoke the man confidently.

"All right then, your coffin boat looked a little unsea worthy. I just wondered if you would be fine on your own." both the hawk eyed man and Ichigo were silent for a few moments afterwards.

"Who are you?" he spoke. "You speak without fear, without any signs of respect. What is your name boy?"

"Hey!" argued Ichigo. "Its Kurosaki Ichigo, not "Boy". So who the hell are you?"

"I am Dracule Mihawk." he paused for a few moments for the shock to wear in. Team Ichigo weren't shocked.

"Cool name." said Ichigo. "Better than mine at least, it means 15."

"Most in your position would tremble in fear at this point."

"I'm not most people."

"You appear not."

Silence returned between the groups. The recently identified Miawk release a burst of killing intent, enough intent to have most people quaking in their boots. The again, Team Ichigo were used to vast pressures being exerted them and were as such unaffected.

"So then... do you need any help?"

"I shall tell you again Boy... no, I do not require assistance."

"Jeez... only asking."

Mihawk stared continuously as the group.

"I am starting to dislike you boy."

"Love you too Mihawk." Mihawk would have fumed at this point if it wouldn't break his image into pieces.

"Aaahhh!" interrupted Orihime. "Can't we all just get along?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"YOU LOT!" called Yamada from the kitchen area. "DINNER'S READY!"

"OOOOH!" yelled Rukia. "DINNNERRR!" she ran off inside, the novelty of edible meals had not worm thin, nor would it ever.

"Coming." Chad left as well.

"I'll leave you to deal with the pissed off psychopath." stated Uryu as he too went off to have dinner.

"Just me and you big guy." remarked Ichigo.

"I am coming very close to killing you now boy. I have slain many a man for less than this."

"Yeah yeah! Stop moaning!" Mihawk's hand went to the cross on his back. He was struggling to not cut the ship in half simply out of principle. Mihawk liked to cut ships in half with his sword, it was entertaining.

Mihawk instead put effort into his scowl. A passing rumour in the South Blue was that Mihawk could make someone shit themselves simply by staring at them. The rumour wasn't false.

Because Ichigo did not shit himself, this pissed off Mihawk even more. Only three things amused the strongest swordsman in the world. Good fights with other swordsmen, cutting ships in half and making people shit themselves.

"Can you stop staring daggers at me." sighed Ichigo. "Look... I'm really hungry right now. If you're starting something could you wait until I've finished eating."

"Is that a challenge." glared Mihawk. "I gladly accept."

"As do I... after dinner of course." Ichigo turned round and began to walk towards the door which led to the inside of the ship. Mihawk continued to glare. "What?! Do you want some damn food too or something?!"

"... Food would quench my anger temporarily until our duel." Only three things amused the strngest swordsman in the world. Good fights with other swordsmen, cutting ships in half and making people shit themselves. He liked but two things though. Red wine and good food.

"_If their chef is adequate, perhaps I may spare their ship from destruction and only kill the boy."_

"Fine... time to feed the coffin hobo. Come on inside." Mihawk left his ship and in one jump leapt onto the Midnight Cutter. He followed the Substitute Shinigami inside.

**AN- Yep... Ichigo's pissed off another important person. He really seems to have a habit of doing so. I mean, he pisses off Uryu, Renji, Byakuya, Grimmjow, Ulqiorra, that weird Spanish Arrancar, the entire Japanese yakuza of Karakura Town, Aizen, Ginjo, his inner hollow. Did Ichigo NOT piss anyone off?**

**All I can say is that Ichigo is going to step on a lot of toes in my story. I debated putting the Mihawk fight scene in this chapter but couldn't be bothered.**

**Another thing, just had a look at the new manga chapters on Bleach Wiki. Three shitty things came to my attention. One, Ichigo must say goodbye to Zangetsu, two, Zangetsu is actually Ywach and his Quincy powers while Hichigo is his Shinigami side. Three, Kubo is now pulling hit out of his arse.**

**Seriously, I am ignoring Kubo's latest work now. I'm keeping my story the same since it started BEFORE these new bullshit points came up. In every fanfic there comes a time when the story much branch of from canon... well guess what? **

**THIS IS AN AU! Things are different. If loads of characters die or something who cares? In _my_ world the fight ended differently... very differently. **

**I repeat, from this point on I will ignore future canon unless I see something super cool which doesn't suck, at which point, I _might_ include it.**

**Okay... rant over now!**

**Thanks again to all my reviewers, followers and favouriters. (You are all epic. Please continue to review and boost my ego!)**

**Now then, time to finish my homework... ahh homework. The bane of a fanfiction writers life. Undying Soul out!**


	7. Chapter 7: The Coffin Hobo gets Pissed!

**Chapter Seven**

**AN- REALLY SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT! My beta is sorta out of it a the moment so I had to do it myself today, it would have been up like a week go but I had to give him a chance to look at it... he didn't.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own either Bleach or One Piece. To rectify this, I plan on using reverse psychology to persuade the courts that they belong to me! I'll even hire Pheonix god damn Wright! Soon I shall have my money jacuzzi!**

By all rights Ichigo should have realised that inviting Dracule Mihawk, the strongest swordsman in the world, to dinner, was probably not the smartest move to make at the time.

Maybe he should have realised his mistake immediately after making it, people who carry over sized swords around are usually lots of trouble. (Ichigo knew this because he himself was an example)

Perhaps the gaze which kills puppies upon eye contact should have tipped the Substitute off.

The clues should have kicked in when he started blasting spiritual pressure about the place like he owned the place... again, Ichigo himself was an example of this.

The pieces only really started to fall into place when Yamada noticed their extra dinner guest and promptly freaked out, screaming "HOLY SHIT! THAT'S DRACULE FUCKING MIHAWK! WHAT IN THE HELL IS THE STRONEST SWORDSMAN IN THE WORLD DOING HERE!"

Ichigo may not have noticed how stupid it was inviting such a overpowered individual to dinner was, but he did realise that things were pretty awkward during the starter.

"This food is... satisfactory." declared Mihawk neutrally, having sampled some of the chicken salad produced by the newly recruited chef, while said chef quivered in the corner praying to some higher deity in the hopes that the Shichubukai wouldn't nuke the ship or something. Ironically, he was in the room with two technical gods. (Ichigo and Rukia)

"I know, right?" agreed Ichigo, taking a bite of some of his own dish. "Yamada's pretty good at cooking."

"I said it was satisfactory... not good."

"Believe me coffin hobo," Mihawk's left eyebrow twitched slightly at this point. "if you had eaten the food we ate _before _Yamada showed up... lets just say you would call this simple salad the ambrosia of the gods."

The combined might of Chad, Uryu, Rukia and Ichigo saying "Amen!" flooded the room.

"Hey!" roared Orihime indignantly. "Are you implying that my food sucked?"

Everyone froze... the secret was nearly out. If anyone said the wrong thing now, Ichigo was sure that the chick who could cut things out of existence would unknowingly become a mass murderer.

"Not... sucked." said Rukia, straining her next sentence. "It was rather... _good_." she eventually got the last word out. "Its just that Yamada's food was just a _tiny bit better _than yours."

"Be quiet... you are boring me now." commanded the swordsman. The table descended into silence, all the while half the people at the large dining table were considering how they had a narrow miss after that.

Food was eaten quickly, the starter was soon finished.

"I'd... I'd... I''d better get the m-main course out now!" stammered Yamada, practically fleeing the room after grabbing all the used plates first. He returned to the room a few minutes later carrying the next dish, a large pot of beef stew. He hesitantly laid it in the centre of the table and procured some plates, which he distributed amongst the eaters. "H-h-help yourself!"

This course was as awkward as the first one, there was little conversation and Ichigo was starting to dislike the vaguely Spanish looking sword user for spoiling his meal. Edible cooking hadn't lost the novelty yet for the orange head.

Only one thing prevented Mihawk from massacring the whole lot of them due to the quite honestly uninteresting meal; the wine. Yamada had at first greatly disliked the idea of providing any alcohol for the group after the shameless incident at Cocoyasi Island. Much persuasion had been needed from Orihime to overrule this decision. She persuaded him that it could be used to improve flavour in some meals, so Yamada allowed the few bottles of wine on the ship to remain. This wine was poor quality shit which Urahara had probably picked up from some random supermarket in the world of the living, was Ichigo's opinion of the red liquid. _"The cheap bugger! Wouldn't surprise me if he watered it down too... and with his piss no less!"_

Why this mattered to Mihawk, he didn't know it was _supposed _to be bad. All the wine he had drunk previously had been created by people literally from another world to those of Ichigo, as such, this new piss poor taste was a new experience for the great lover of wine.

"Dessert?" suggested Yamada weakly, trying to appease the 'ship slicer in halfer'. Ichigo really wondered why the usually upbeat Yamada was acting like such a pussy. Ichigo was clueless after all, he was the idiot who still couldn't recognise Orihime's feelings for him so _of course _he had no clue that Yamada was terrified.

"I have had quite enough." Mihawk stood up sharply. "This meal has been... adequate. I shall not destroy this ship out of principle, you have your chef to thank for that." he gave a small nod of acknowledgement to the chef. "As for you," he turned to Ichigo, who was busy using a tooth pick to try and get a stubborn piece of meat out of that annoying area in your mouth where your finger can't reach. "I remembered that 'coffin hobo' comment before. Our duel shall commence as expected."

"Fine fine!" said Ichigo tiresomely, chucking the toothpick to the side. "I could do with a warm up. They call you what? 'The strongest swordsman ever' or something, this should be fun enough."

Uryu sighed. "If you are going to solve your pent up male aggression, please aim all destructive techniques _away from_ the actual ship."

"Got it, no Getsuga Tenshouing."

Mihawk humphed. "If your puny ship falls apart from my attacks, not my fault."

"Orihime, act as shielder if needed." said Ichigo off handedly.

"Okey dokey!" was her cheerful response, she smiled dryly. "If someone starts blowing things up, I'll try to stop property damage."

"You should fight on the lower deck." suggested Chad, staying seated.

"Not watching Chad?"

"... I want my pudding."

"Figures." Ichigo sighed, he would be a bit annoyed at having to sacrifice his non lethal pudding.

"Have fun you three!" demanded Rukia cheerfully. "I'm sure our _Captain _here can deal with things. Me and Yamato 'll stick here with Chad."

"..."

"..."

"You only care about the pudding... don't you?"

"You know me so well Ichigo." Rukia smiled evilly.

XXXXXXXXXX

Ichigo and Mihawk stood facing one another, both had their weapons drawn. (Or in Mihawk's case, a small knife)

"_That's _what you'll fight me with?"

"Why should I use my weapon if one is not deserving to see it used?"

"Suit yourself, coffin hobo." Mikawk twitched again, not leaping at Ichigo with blood lust only because he would have a legitimate chance to inflict some proper damage in a moment.

"OKAY PEOPLE!" yelled Orihime to the non existent crowds, using a microphone which Ichigo was pretty sure she didn't have in her hands moments ago. "I want a clean fight, okay? Nothing below the waist, no lethal damage, no over the top lasers, _preferably, _but I you get the urge, point them away from the ship. 'kay?"

"Get on with it Orihime!" said Ichigo. "Coffin hobo's offering a workout."

"I... am not... a coffin hobo."

"Of course not, you simply sail and seemingly live inside a floating coffin. Hmmmm... you're right, if anything, you must be a vampire."

"Ichigo, Vampires burn in the sunlight." pointed out a certain female.

"True, he could be a day walker though."

"If he was a vampire, he'd sparkle."

"Vampires don't sparkle."

"Don't start this argument with me Ichigo! We had a nearly identical one during the whole Bount thing, so we all know that I'll win."

"I'm being serious Orihime. Vampires. Do not. Sparkle. They drink the blood of virgins, wear capes and turn into bats."

"Hey Mihawk!" asked Orihime.

"What!" snapped Mihawk.

"Do you drink the blood of virgins and transform into various flying rats?"

"... No, I do not drink _any_ blood or turn into _any _various forms of flying rats."

Orihime turned back to Ichigo with a smirk on her face. "See?"

"Yeah, but we can totally see Mihawk's chest, in a not gay way. If he sparkled we'd see."

"Can we _please_ start fighting?" asked Mihawk, regretting stepping foot on a ship of such fools.

"Sure." Ichigo got back into fighting position.

"THREE! TWO! ONE! FIGHT!" yelled Orihime.

With sudden speed, Ichigo rushed forwards and gave a weak slice to Mihawk, who blocked with his little blade. He easily parried the large weapon and lunged forwards. Ichigo sidestepped And cut again with more power. Mikawk blocked, only for his weapon to be unusable when the blade was cut clean off. Whatever material it was made of, it wasn't going to stand up against the might of a Zanpakuto.

"I told you," said Ichigo as he stepped back. "Use the big ass sword."

"Very well then. Let me show you the sword which is known as the strongest sword in the world, Yoru." proclaimed Mihawk. With agonisingly slow relish, Mihawk drew the large black blade from his back.

Ichigo had to admit that it looked pretty awesome. Seven foot long blade, golden cross handle, ornate decorations, a sharp edge, truly it was intimidating. The only question was whether it could stand up against Zangetsu.

"I shall not hold back now, Ichigo." Mihawk charged, or rather, used his equivalent to a charge. He walked slowly forwards, swinging his blade in clear precise arcs. Ichigo struggled to block each strike, taking a step back each time their blades met.

STRIKE! CLASH! SLASH!

The sound of blades clashing rung through the air like a beautiful melody of cold metal on sharp steel. Mihawk gave a powerful downwards swing, which Ichigo blocked using his superior strength. He continued to press his blade down, matching Ichigo's defence using his own arm power. Ichigo placed a second hand on his blade, showing that the orange head was not using all of his power. Mihawk realised his disadvantage and disengaged. The strongest swordsman in the world was no fool, he recognised that his opponent specialised in strength. It would be foolish to fight him in terms of power until he could gauge their difference in abilities better. Ichigo too studied his opponent, just from the small clash so far it was clear that Mikawk was battle hardened, his experience with a blade clearly meant more in this conflict than Ichigo's own instinctual fighting based on his higher power and speed, although Mihawk was still much more physically powerful than a normal human, about 15 times stronger based on his current strength usage.

Ichigo took up the offensive. He gave a few powerful, wide blows, hoping to use his superior power as a Shinigami to blast through the swordsman's defence. No good though, Mihawk had plenty of experience at being on the other side of a strength swordsman, even if his last spar with Shanks had been a few years ago. He effortlessly parried each strike with his own, rebounding the direction of Zangetsu's swing instead of directly matching it. Mihawk swung low, utilising his long blade length to gain an edge.

Ichigo jumped using his enhanced speed, then used the force of gravity to increase the power of his next slash, which Mihawk sidestepped and countered. The substitutes speed easily allowed him to bring his blade back into position to block.

STRIKE! SLASH! WHACK!

Ichigo continued to take the relentless barrage of carefully placed strikes, each designed to cut in a certain way so as to force Ichigo to block each one in turn. A sudden strike aimed at the shoulder nearly caught Ichigo off guard, only through excellent reaction speed did Ichigo counter. Ichigo scowled, Mihawk was the one dictating the pace of this fight, so far Ichigo had only been reacting and countering when Mihawk gave the opportunity.

Back on offence, Ichigo forced the tempo of the melody of blade work to shift to a higher speed, the impacts of metal on metal became louder. The wave of slashes was parried and blocked, out right dodged when necessary. Each strike Ichigo placed was more powerful than the last one, more difficult to avoid, more likely to land a hit. Ichigo reached the limits of his current physical strength without landing a decisive blow, the later few nearly broke through Mihawk's defence however.

In response to this, the egoistic man disengaged from the conflict to gain some distance, as did Ichigo. "You're not that bad." spoke the orange head as he wiped a small bead of sweat from his forehead. Mihawk clearly had strength and power to match Ichigo in his current form, and appeared to be still holding back to some extent. Ichigo too was not going all out, he still had all three of his releases to throw out for speed and power boosts.

"As are you. You lack experience but your power and speed makes up for this fact."

"Enough talk!" roared Orihime. "The crowd demands blood!"

"What crowd?" pointed out Mihawk.

"FIIIIIGGGHHHHTTTT!"

Mihawk took the initiative and dashed forwards, swinging attack after attack at Ichigo, who blocked each and every one. Only his quick reaction time kept Ichigo going through the match, he could clearly see that Mihawk outclassed him as a straight out swordsman. His form and attack style showed complete mastery of the battle field.

Ichigo slashed wide, Mihawk's blade rushed forwards, eager to taste blood. Ichigo used a hasty shunpo to jump aside, getting only a small cut into his large black coat. "Damn... I liked this thing."

"That was an interesting speed technique."

"Its called Shunpo, it pretty much just gives fast speed. In a fight it allows one to move faster, but it doesn't really do much if your opponent has the reactions to block a shunpoed attack, or if the user is unable to move his blade to keep up with the movement speed."

"I didn't peg you as combat knowledgeable, Ichigo."

"Hey! I may be an idiot at times but I'm not stupid! If there's one thing I know, its how to fight."

"Then let us take this up to the next level."

"I agree. Takkai No Tsuki Ririsu!" **(Moon Release Of Battle)**

A great wave of power erupted from Ichigo as the sword in his hands changed shape, shifting into a weapon able to handle the bare minimum of Ichigo's powers. The blade was pretty much the same as his Shikai before the reforging, a cleaver like oversized trench knife. It had the same black grey colouring as the previous Shikai, only in reverse so the edge was black and the handle was metallic. Ichigo also knew from experience that it was slightly longer than before but still shorter than his unreleased blade.

The actual powers of the release was simple. Basic access to a slightly weakened Getsuga Tenshou, about 30 percent of total available Reiatsu being accessible and his total physical strength and power being improved about 1.1 times more and his speed about 1.2 times. It was pretty much Ichigo's standard battle form, for when he was serious but not needing the full power of the next release.

"Hmmmm!" humphed Mihawk as he scowled. "Hardly impressive. A small light show and a smaller blade."

"You're supposed to be the best, right? I suggest you defend, this next slash might actually kill you." Power gathered through Zangetsu as Ichigo raised it above him, ready to swing. "Getsuga... Tenshou!" Ichigo swung and so the air and everything in the way of the slash parted as the pure energy of the attack was sent flying towards Mihawk. The power of the attack was about Lieutenant level.

Mihawk widened his eyes and swung his blade in the most powerful horizontal strike used yet, finally realising that Ichigo was not quite the foolish slacker he thought he was. The very force of Mihawk's counter attack cut the air that the large, black, crucifix blade met, compressing the air and gathering it towards the edge so that the end of the swing released the air as a powerful cutting wave which he released at his opponent. The attack was called Kokuto Issen **(Black Blade Single Flash) **even though he never felt the need to speak it aloud.

Mihawk's powerful counter met the Getsuga, the two attacks fought against one another as the heaven cutter and the ship cutter struggled for dominance. The Kokuto Issen won, having been reinforced with Haki before hand in order to bring the power of the attack up to around Captain level. The Getsuga was cut in half much to Ichigo's surprise.

He jumped to the side as the attack surged towards the upper deck. Orihime used her Subarashi Santen Kesshun to protect the shit from damage. As the attack finally dispelled, Orihime turned to Ichigo and tutted.

"Now now Ichigo, didn't I say to _refrain _from using giant laser like attacks?"

"Yes, but Mihawk used one too!"

"That is besides the point, that was more of a slash than a laser. He also activated it in response to yours."

"Big whoop!" complained Ichigo. "Come on! I aimed it _away_ form the ship, it was coffin hobo here who nearly cut the ship in half."

"I... am not... a coffin hobo." protested Mihawk, killer intent radiating off him like a flash light, screw the personal image.

"The match is pretty much over anyway's." declared Orihime with a sigh.

"I don't mind." shrugged Ichigo. "That guys a badass! I'm pretty sure he was holding back, except for that last attack. I'm sure I'd need to use my second form to match him blow for blow at full power, on an even battlefield."

"I guess he did look Captain class during that last one."

"Enough!" snapped Mihawk. "This day, has honestly been humiliating. I can't stand being on this ship of fools for any longer. I thank you for your hospitality and for the good fight. Ichigo, you have earned my respect as a fighter, not as a person. If anything, I hate you."

"Nice to know I'm loved Hawky!"

"I am going now, if we ever meet again I will fight you for real so that I can see whether you can truly match me on the battle field. I anticipate our coming fight with great relish... not our upcoming meeting. Goodbye." Mihawk turned round, marched to the end of the ship, cast off the rope securing his ship to the Midnight Cutter and left.

Orihime and Ichigo shrugged, before heading inside to capture some pudding. "He was pretty cool actually, for a coffin hobo."

"Shut up please, Ichigo. I really want to eat pudding right now. I'm sure that Rukia's stuffing her face right now with my slice."

"What slice? We all know she would have eaten it _ages _ago. Mine too."

Anyone watching what had just occurred would wonder how such powerful figures could spar with one of the strongest fighters in the world one minute then argue about pudding the next. The only answer available is that the stronger you are the more messed up you become and since Ichigo is our main character it automatically gives him the place as the most messed up guy on the crew... with Chad coming in a close second place.

XXXXXXXXXX

In a brightly lit room five men were sat in deep talk. Each man was influential and powerful in their own right, each one able to command the military, the marines, the media, the world. A decision made by one of these figures could essentially change the existence of millions and an order from all of them has massive consequences. Even being sat in the same room as one another suggests that an important decision was being made.

The first man was a bulky figure wrapped in a crisp black business suit worth more than a common factory owners pay check for a century. He was greying prematurely and had a black hat over his dreadlocks.

"This new rookie... Ichigo the spirit cutter. His presence is concerning."

"I agree." said the second man. "A second Wano Country is truly a threat to the World Government as a whole."

This man was tall and thin, while the first was wide and bulky. He wore an equally expensive suit and had similar grey hair, with emphasis on the beard. He stood to one side of the chair the first man was sat on.

"Hmmm! Wano has been a pain to deal with for years. I have always been in favour of outright war with the damn Samurai's, and I have the same thought's about these new ones! Send the Admirals, raze them to the ground before they become a threat."

This figure was the most violent of his group. While he did not actively search for conflict, he was always one to deal with issues through fire power rather than political power. He had an angry expression on his bald face. He twirled with his long moustache while scratching at his sweat inducing suit.

"You have always been too impatient, my friend. Wano is not destroyed because their military power is enough to defer us from doing so. This new place could be similarly strong, more intelligence must be gathered." The man swung his samurai sword down with vigour. "Then we shall strike if necessary."

A wise comment from the eldest of the figures. Lank and thin in white robes, the vaguely monk like man in glasses held an air of authority about him which came only with age.

"Allow me to deal with it then." declared the last one.

He sat comfortably in his own chair, hands in pockets. Blonde hair and beard, a scar on his chest shown through the open buttons of his shirt. As the youngest he held the least respect, thus the reason for him to openly accept the responsibility of this awkward matter.

"I have listened to this argument for many minutes, I have heard all opinions and as such I feel I am in a position to make a move. Allow me to deal with this country, I can plan for both diplomacy _and _for violence."

"What do you intend?" asked the elder.

"Two waves of smaller groups sent to interrogate and investigate, led by Vice Admirals. If they are peaceful, send a diplomat. If not, wave three shall include an Admiral. After a show of power I am sure they shall join our cause."

The man stood up. "Very well then, do what you wish. Peace or war, it does not matter. Only the integrity of the World Government matters."

And so the talks continued. The Gorosei, the five most influential people in the world and the leaders of the World Government, turned their attention towards the severely weakened Soul Society.

**AN- What a chapter, eh? Hope the Mihawk fight was up to all your likings. I'm sure that a few of you were annoyed with the conclusion of the fight. Honestly, it was only a spar. They couldn't really go all out on that small ship. You saw what damage nearly occurred from them taking each other seriously.**

**Oh yeah, remember my little rant last chapter. I think people misunderstood what I meant. I was not faulting the manga in the slightest, I was just annoyed that such important pieces of info were released ONLY when I had actually started this fanfic. That was simply a warning that things from here on out will be AU.**

**One major change is that Ichigo (Spoilers) didn't get two Zanpakuto's. Instead he had all of his powers condensed into a single blade, which is suppressing his full power. This is also why he got to stay in Karakura Town, because his basic normal form did not affect the human world.**

**Next issue, my Beta seems to be a bit busy at the moment. I need a good beta to take over for a while. Any offers would be much appreciated.**

**That's it for now, my tooth is killing me so just remember to rate and review! Undying Soul out!**


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